Heat Sink Design Basics

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 sink design basics.

In computers heat sinks are used to cool cpus gpus and some chipsets and ram modules. 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. 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. Analysis demonstrated that the design with heat pipes running above the components kept junction temperatures within 2 c of the original.

Solving the thermal equation given in the figure gives t 1 p d θ t 2. Heat sinks are used on a broad range of electronics ranging from cpus to motor drivers. 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.

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.