Heat Sink Design Basics

Heat sinks are used on a broad range of electronics ranging from cpus to motor drivers.

Heat sink design basics.

Ats engineers used analytical modeling and cfd simulations to examine the thermal performance of two aluminum heat sink designs. Analysis demonstrated that the design with heat pipes running above the components kept junction temperatures within 2 c of the original. In computers heat sinks are used to cool cpus gpus and some chipsets and ram modules. Heat sink design basics are all about selecting the right geometry for a heat sink to affix to high power components which then needs to be paired with other cooling strategies.

In this article we ll walk you through the basics of heat sinks and heat sink design including the calculations involved in defining the proper heat sink for your application. Figure 3 illustrates this idea and shows that just as the electric current i in a resistor results from the potential difference δv across a resistance r in an electrical circuit thermal power flow p d produces a temperature difference δt across the thermal resistance in a thermal circuit. The performance of a heat sink can be improved by increasing the thermal conductivity of the material the surface area or the heat transfer coefficient. There are many off the shelf options for heat sinks all with slightly different form factors masses and materials.

A heat sink also commonly spelled heatsink is a passive heat exchanger that transfers the heat generated by an electronic or a mechanical device to a fluid medium often air or a liquid coolant where it is dissipated away from the device thereby allowing regulation of the device s temperature. One with heat pipes that stopped at the edge of the components and the other with heat pipes that ran above the components.