Feedthrough Assembly Thermal Management for Optical Signals
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Solution Overview
Problem
In component testing, especially in vacuum or high-temperature environments, existing feedthrough assemblies face challenges with heat dissipation and signal integrity due to thermal paths and axial/lateral stress on cables, leading to potential operational irregularities and signal loss, particularly in optical signal transmission.
Innovation Solution
A feedthrough assembly design featuring a main housing with inner and outer housings that provide aligned conduits for each cable, sealed with thermally conductive materials to maintain a straight path and prevent stress, ensuring hermetic sealing and efficient heat dissipation through a varying cross-sectional area along the longitudinal axis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cables are routed through conventional feedthrough assemblies, then signal transmission is enabled, but thermal paths are blocked and stress concentration occurs leading to signal loss and operational irregularities
Solution Approach 1:
The feedthrough assembly is divided into multiple independent cable conduits, each providing a separate hermetic seal and thermal path for individual cables. This segmentation allows each cable to be independently sealed and thermally managed, preventing heat buildup and stress concentration that would otherwise affect the entire assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
Hermetic sealing material is introduced as an intermediary substance within each cable conduit, filling the space between the cable and conduit walls. This intermediary material provides both hermetic sealing to maintain vacuum integrity and thermal conduction paths to efficiently remove heat from the cables while preventing direct mechanical contact that would cause stress.
2Ease of operation
If cables are bent or routed through non-linear sections in the feedthrough, then installation flexibility is improved, but axial and lateral stress increases causing signal loss and cable failure
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of bending the cables to fit the feedthrough structure, the feedthrough conduits are designed to accommodate straight cable paths. The inversion principle is applied by making the housing structure adapt to the cable's natural straight configuration rather than forcing the cable to conform to the housing geometry, thereby eliminating stress-induced signal loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The cross-sectional area of the chamber varies along the longitudinal axis of the main housing, creating expansion spaces that allow cables to enter and exit without experiencing lateral stress. This parameter change in the housing geometry provides sufficient clearance for cable routing while maintaining straight signal transmission paths.
3Area of stationary object
If multiple cables are routed through a single feedthrough assembly, then space efficiency is improved, but thermal interference and stress coupling between cables increases
Solution Approach 1:
The feedthrough assembly incorporates multiple separate cable conduits instead of a single shared pathway. Each conduit is hermetically sealed and thermally isolated from the others, allowing multiple cables to pass through the same feedthrough housing without thermal interference. This segmentation maintains space efficiency while eliminating harmful thermal coupling between adjacent cables.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively prevents thermally induced operational irregularities and signal loss by maintaining cables in a straight path with reduced stress, ensuring efficient heat dissipation and hermetic sealing, enhancing the reliability of optical and electrical signal transmission in testing systems.
Implementation Method 1
the cable must be hermetically sealed through the feedthrough
Implementation Method 2
A thermal path is needed for each cable to remove heat
Data Source
AI summary
The present application describes a signal conveying system including plural cables and a feedthrough assembly. The feedthrough assembly includes a main housing. The assembly also includes at least one housing positioned within the main housing with an internal wall that defines a plurality of conduits. The assembly also includes a volume defined by an internal surface of the main housing. The assembly further includes a sealing material provided in the volume. The application also describes a method of conveying optical signals.