Should we cite thermal interface material performance data in English units or Metric?
If you have taken the time to examine the thermal interface material data on this website, you will quickly realize that almost everything is reported in English units. Although I’ve heard minor complaints about this from some of my European counterparts, it didn’t sink in until recently that this reporting method may not be meaningful to my customers.
Ron Iscoff of Chip Scale Review wrote an editorial (Nov/Dec 2007) which he titled, “The Metric System: Meet the Holdouts.” He pointed out in this article that there are only three “backward” nations who have not implemented the metric system across the board-Liberia, Myanmar, and (of course) U.S.A.
Indium sells products all over the world. In fact, more product is sold outside the US than inside. Still, the designers of many of these customers are US based, so does it make sense to continue citing English units? I don’t know the answer to that and I’m curious to see what you think. Are you more comfortable reading English units, or are you forced to convert our data to metric to evaluate Indium’s thermal interface material performance data?
Paul Zander:
Just spec everything in metric, with possibly an “informational” column with the inch equivalent.
Heat is measured in Watts (metric unit).
Temperature ranges for semiconductors are specified in Celsius. Converting to BTU and Fahrenheit and back is silly.
BTW, it’s no longer appropriate to call say “English” units, since the UK is well into metric.
Amanda Hartnett:
Thank you for your input Paul. I agree with you that the most widely accepted heat measurement is Watts, and this is what I try to cite. Celsius seems widely accepted over Fahrenheit, but anyone looking for BTUs does need the Fahrenheit equivalents.
I looked up on Wikipedia “English Units” and it says right in the definition that this term is confusing to readers from the UK since it is a US term. I’ll try to bite my tongue the next time and refer to these values as Imperial Units.