Heat Sink Design Basics

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

Heat sink design basics.

Solving the thermal equation given in the figure gives t 1 p d θ t 2. One with heat pipes that stopped at the edge of the components and the other with heat pipes that ran above the components. 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.

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. 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. Heat sinks are used on a broad range of electronics ranging from cpus to motor drivers. Ats engineers used analytical modeling and cfd simulations to examine the thermal performance of two aluminum heat sink designs.

Heat sink design basics for your pcb. 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.