Heat Sinks Guide - Types, Uses and Applications

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This guide will explore the types of heat sinks, their uses, and their most common industrial applications.

By the end of this post, you'll have a better understanding of what heat sinks are and how they can benefit your business. Stay tuned!

What is heat sink?

A heat sink is a passive device that transfers thermal energy from a hot object to a cooler one.

It is made of high thermal conductivity materials, such as copper or aluminum. Heat sink is used to dissipate heat efficiently.

Heat sinks are often used in electronic devices, such as CPUs, GPUs, and LED lights.

When these devices get too hot, the heat sink helps to cool them down by transferring the heat away from the hot object and into the cooler environment.

These devices would overheat and potentially damage or destroy themselves without a heat sink.

How does heat sink work?

A heat sink is a device that absorbs thermal energy from a computer's CPU and converts it into less harmful forms of energy.

It transfers the thermal energy to the ambient air, which cools down and becomes wind or water vapor.

The process then repeats itself, first absorbing heat from one surface (the "source"), then releasing it at cooler temperatures on another surface (the "sink").

This process works because when you have high-temperature air molecules near metal surfaces, they start to vibrate back and forth faster than they would in other environments.

This vibration creates an electric current in any nearby wire, so if you connect wires to both sides of the heatsink with copper wire, there will be electricity flow.

Heat Sink Materials

Aluminum Heat Sinks

Aluminum is better than any other metal when it comes to thermal conductivity, and it is very cheap compared to other high-grade metals like copper or silver.

Aluminum Heat Sinks are not the best heat sink out there, but they are certainly one of the most efficient.

Aluminum is great at conducting heat away from whatever it is touching (remember aluminum's thermal conductivity rating is almost three times higher than copper), and Aluminum Heat Sinks use this fact to their advantage with all the fins.

Copper Heat Sinks

Copper heatsinks are generally better for applications that have higher power densities or require more uniform heat dissipation on the heatsink surface.

Copper provides a larger difference in thermal performance between the ambient and junction temperatures, leading to lower average case temperatures during high power operation.

Types of Heat Sinks

There are several type of heat sinks available. Manufacturer like Winshare Thermal design different Heat Sinks depending on your application or device.

· Extruded Heat Sinks

The shape of an extruded heat sink is created by forcing metal into a mold.

This type of heatsink is very common because it offers good performance for an economical price.

An important factor in this type of heat sink's ability to perform well is the direction that the fins are bent, either toward or away from the base.

· Skived Heat Sinks

Skived Heat Sinks are shaped with sharp blades and are the most common types of heat sinks.

These heat sinks are easy to manufacture, especially when it is large in size and requires complex shapes.

Skived Heat sinks are used where the heat-dissipating surface is not more than 1 meter squared.

A disadvantage of this type of heat sink is that its performance depends on the velocity and pressure of the fluid flow.

· Heat pipe heat sink

A heat pipe type is a passive device made from special materials called thermos compressible fluids.

When one end of the material, or evaporator, is heated, it causes evaporation, turning the material into a gas. The gas rises to other connected tubes where it condenses to a liquid and soaks back down to the evaporator.

Heat pipe types work best when they have two types of metal: metal with a high surface area used as the evaporator and copper or aluminum tubes connected at either end for the thermal connection.

· Bonded Heat Sinks

Bonded Heat Sinks type is the best for cooling your CPU. Bonded Heat Sinks - still commonly known as Peltier Coolers or Thermoelectric Coolers (TEC) - will be able to cool down CPUs up to 150W (40W TECs are the most common).

Bonded heat sinks come in two different types, Active Bonding, and Passive Bonding.

· Forged Heat Sinks

Forged Heat Sinks are produced by pouring or pressing metal into a mold and allowing it to cool.

They can be made from aluminum, copper, and other metals such as stainless steel.

Parts that require extremely high strength can be formed by forging. Forged pieces tend to have the best looks, even though they may be the most expensive types of heat sinks.

Forged heat sinks are often used on high-end CPU coolers because they usually look good and can dissipate large amounts of heat due to their size.

· Brazing Heat Sink

Brazing Heat Sinks are types of heat sinks where the parts are connected with a Brazing material such as silver or copper.

Brazing is often used when joining metal to aluminum because it has a low melting point and forms strong joints when cooled quickly.

Brazed types of heat sinks are usually made from copper but can also be made from aluminum.

· Friction Stir Welded Heat Sink

Friction Stir Welded Heat Sinks can be made of several kinds of metals, including copper and aluminum.

Friction Stir Welding is a type of welding that stirs the metals together without melting them by rotating the metals until they connect.

Friction Stir Welded types of heat sinks allow for more flexible shapes and sizes than other, more solid types of heat sinks.

What Can Heat Sinks Be Used for?

• Extends the electronic devices lifespan

• Efficiency is improved by removing heat

• Protects sensitive circuits from overheating

• Ensures the device stays cool to touch during use

How to Choose the Right Heat Sink?

When choosing a heat sink, there are three main factors you need to take into account:

· Type of Heat Sink

The type of heat sink you need will depend on what kind of device you're trying to cool down.

There are two types of heat sinks:

1. Passive

2. Active

Passive heat sinks rely on natural airflow to dissipate heat, while active heat sinks have fans or other means of actively cooling the device.

If you don't have good airflow around your device, you'll need an active heat sink.

· Need for the Heat Sink

The next thing to consider is whether or not you need a heat sink. Not all devices generate a lot of heat, and some appliances that do produce a lot of heat don't necessarily need to be cooled down.

The best way to determine whether or not you need a heat sink is to read the device's specifications closely.

If it produces above-normal heat levels, you probably want to use an active heat sink.

Measure the temperature of your device using a thermometer. If it reaches more than 50 degrees Celsius, you want to use a heat sink.

· The Features to Look at

The last thing to look at it is the features of a heat sink. Several features can influence how effective your heat sink is.

You want to make sure the heat sink has good thermal conductivity, low operation temperatures, low noise generation levels, and adjustable speed.

These things will ensure you get the best function out of your new heat sink!

Major Applications of a Heat Sink

Some of the Heat sinks applications are:

· Heat sinks are commonly used in the electronics industry. They can be found in motherboards, microprocessors, and as heat spreaders on graphics cards.

· Heat sinks are widely applied in household appliances like refrigerators or air conditioners where heat is generated as a byproduct of the cooling process.

· Heat sinks are widely used in heat exchangers where heat is transferred from a high heat capacity fluid to a low heat capacity one. This heat sink application may be found in air conditioning, heat pumps, and heating systems.

· Heat sinks are also applied as radiators in car heaters or heaters for some industrial processes.

· Heat sinks are widely used in the lighting industry, where some heat is generated as a byproduct of electrical discharge during lighting. This heat sink application can be found on stage/automotive lights and studio lamps where heat generation needs to be impaired.