Heat Sink Types

A heat sink s fin style can significantly influence its ability to release thermal energy into the environment.

Heat sink types.

Convection fin arrangement and the manufacturing process. Let s take a look at 6 common heat sink types. 1 extruded heat sinks. In computers heat sinks are used to cool cpus gpus and some chipsets and ram modules.

Thermal paste also called thermal compound thermal grease thermal interface material tim thermal gel heat paste heat sink compound heat sink paste or cpu grease is a thermally conductive but usually electrically insulating chemical compound which is commonly used as an interface between heat sinks and heat sources such as high power semiconductor devices. Heat sink is an electronic component or a device of an electronic circuit which disperses heat from other components mainly from the power transistors of a circuit into the surrounding medium and cools them for improving their performance reliability and also avoids the premature failure of the components. In part 2 of our 2 part series on heat sink types we ll look at active heat sinks forged swaged single fin assembly and skived. The drawbacks to this type of heat sink are the cost including manufacturing and ducting necessary in your system.

They are made by pushing hot metal through a steel die into the desired shape. The majority of heat sinks are made from extruded aluminum. Heat sinks can be categorized based on three parameters. Passive heat sinks dissipate thermal energy through the natural convection process.

There are two distinct types of convection. Cpu gpu asic fet etc and the surrounding fluid is air. This means buoyance of hot air alone causes the airflow produced across the heat sink system. 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.

There are a number of different ways to make heat sinks. 6 heat sink types by manufacturing process each heat sink manufacturing process has its own advantages and drawbacks. Types and impacts on efficiency style. In some cases plastic can be used to create a folded fin heat sink.

For the cooling purpose it incorporates a fan or cooling device. The device transfers heat to the heatsink by conduction the primary mechanism of heat transfer from the heatsink is convection although radiation also has a minor influence. Extruded heat sinks are the most common type used today. However fin style is generally subject to the shape of the heat generating component.