Heat Sink Design Basics

One with heat pipes that stopped at the edge of the components and the other with heat pipes that ran above the components.

Heat sink design basics.

Analysis demonstrated that the design with heat pipes running above the components kept junction temperatures within 2 c of the original. 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. 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. 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 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. Solving the thermal equation given in the figure gives t 1 p d θ t 2. A heat sink is a device that spreads heat from a small heat source to extended surfaces and thus improves the heat dissipation convection to the surroundings air water etc. Ats engineers used analytical modeling and cfd simulations to examine the thermal performance of two aluminum heat sink designs.

There are many off the shelf options for heat sinks all with slightly different form factors masses and materials. 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.