Phablet Docking Station with thermal management

The Ask

Design a docking station for Phablets (way back in 2014) for a leading ODM - station should have charging circuit with connector, align to connect phablet to the charging circuit, easy connect and dis-connect mechanism, thermal management, indicators showing charging status. 

Challenges

I had developed this Phablet Docking station as per requirements from an ODM – performed simulations for thermal analysis before proceeding to prototyping. The key challenge during simulations showed thermal pockets and overheating without employing active cooling. 

I had redesigned the casing and ventilations to include a centrifugal fan (active cooling) and re-analysed the design using simulations to finalize the fan specifications. Once the design was frozen with optimal fan and ventilations, I had prototyped the design to perform physical evaluation of variuous aspects including assembling, usability (engage / dis-engage phablet to charging pin), thermal evaluation, noise validation and EMI/ESD evaluations for compliance to relevant standards.

Included pictures show the first version of the dock and the final version which included active cooling to dissipate excess heat from the phablet during the charging process when docked in the station.