Heat sinks are thermally conductive, usually metallic components that are attached to electronic devices in order to absorb and dissipate the heat generated by the electronics. Surface area maximization and thermal conductance are important considerations in heat sink design. A wide variety of cooling fin configurations and geometries are used.
Active heat sinks (CPU coolers, fan sinks) are heat sinks that include an integrated fan. Fan airflow geometry and heat sink fin direction are designed together. Sometimes, active heat sinks are designed for specific processors or overclocking parameters.
Thermo-electric coolers use an electric element to pump heat from the element’s hot side to its cool side. In turn, these devices transfer heat from the component to the environment.
Vapor coolers or phase change coolers are similar to air conditioning or refrigeration systems, but evaporate a refrigerant in a small block mounted directly on the component.
Other proprietary, specialized or unlisted devices.
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Round pins are cooling fins that extend from the base. This fin style offers a high surface area to weight ratio and provides multiple airflow paths through the fins.
Straight fins typically extend across the length of the heat sink. This very common and versatile design uses extrusion to produce fins. Extrusion shapes can be very complex in order to maximize the heat dissipation surface area.
Heat pipes are evacuated vessels, typically with circular cross sections, that are back-filled with a small quantity of working fluid. These completely passive devices are used to transfer heat from components to heat sinks.
Other unlisted, specialized, or proprietary heat sink fin style.
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Heat sinks are mounted with engineered tapes and adhesives that have a high thermal conductance. This eliminates the need for mounting holes and hardware.
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Thermal resistance or thermal sensitivity, the central performance specification for heat sinks, is typically expressed in Celsius (°C) as the temperature increase per watt of heat handled. For catalog and comparison ratings, thermal resistance is a nominal specification. Factors that affect this specification include increased airflow, water-cooling, and ambient temperatures. Frequently, thermal resistance is presented as a performance curve.
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Aluminum is a very common heat sink material. It has good thermal conductance and is easily extruded, stamped, and machined, with low weight and good finish characteristics.
Steel has very good thermal conductivity and is heavier than other heat sink materials. This category includes all grades of steel and stainless steel.
Mixed materials combine components such as copper plates and aluminum fins. Often, mixed materials are used to optimize the combination of performance and cost.
Other unlisted, specialized, or proprietary heat sink materials.
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Fan noise is a nominal rating of noise produced by fans. This amount is often expressed in dBA, which is simply a weighting scale of sound pressure units (dB).
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