Heat Sink Design

The general theory behind a heat sink is to increase the surface area of the heat producing device enabling a more efficient transfer of heat into the ambient environment.

Heat sink design.

As the amount of power dissipation in the device increases the size of the heat sink must increase to allow more surface area to be exposed to the ambient. To efficiently move thermal energy away from a heat generating component the heat sink must have high thermal conductivity. Heat sink design goals may vary but in this report optimization of the vertical heat sink is the main objective. First the heat sink material and size are considered.

Ats engineers used analytical modeling and cfd simulations to examine the thermal performance of two aluminum heat sink designs. Reference the blog post the importance of radiation in heat sink design for a detail review of the role radiation plays in heat sink performance. Based on this definition anything from a rectangular sheet of metal to a complex finned copper or aluminum extrusion can be used as a heat sink. 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.

Bjts mosfets linear regulators etc. In this report both parts are considered separately. The heat is transferred from a higher temperature region electronic component to a lower temperature region fluid medium by conduction. Cad model of a heat sink.

One with heat pipes that stopped at the edge of the components and the other with heat pipes that ran above the components. Some of the more common construction materials for heat sinks are aluminum and copper. A heat sink is a part that conducts heat from a heat generating component to a larger surface area to dissipate the heat to the surroundings thus reducing the temperature of the component. 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.

Heat sinks are an important element in circuit design because they provide an efficient path for heat to be transferred into the ambient air and away from electronic devices eg. Heat sink design key considerations in heat sink design. In computers heat sinks are used to cool cpus gpus and some chipsets and ram modules. Heat sinks are used on a broad range of electronics ranging from cpus to motor drivers.

A heat sink transfers the thermal energy generated by an electronic assembly or component into a cooling medium. One of the most critical parameters of a heat sink is the material from which it is constructed. Thermal conductivity of the material should be as high as possible. As with the natural convection heat sink calculations the radiation heat dissipation q r1 from the area a 1 is calculated using equation 9.

Heat transfer from the heat sink consists of radiation and convection from both the intra fin passages and the unshielded surfaces of two outer fins.