Heat Sinks & Thermal Management



Thermal Management Information & Helpful Hints

Thermal management is critical to project success especially for semiconductor and electronic application. Lasers and LED's are two sub-components that often experience excessive heat. Many options exist for removing heat from an environment such as air cooling, liquid cooling and heat sinks. Some heat sinks incorporate air cooling or liquid cooling. Heat sinks can contain microchannels used for flowing coolant or cooled liquid through the heat sink. The cooled liquid removes the heat from the target.

Heat sinks are made from many materials. One of the most common and inexpensive types of material to use is extruded aluminum. Aluminum has a fairly high rate of thermal conductivity (240 Watts per meter Kelvin). Of course, diamond is the best material to use for heat sinks (1000 - 1200 Watts per meter Kelvin) but the price is quite high therefore many applications are limited to high-end projects and/or medical technology (biotech and medical devices).

Other common materials used for heat sinks include silver, copper and copper alloys such as CuW (copper tungsten). Silver and copper (and associated alloys of the same) have high rates of thermal conductivity (390 for Cu, 425 for Ag and 300 for CuAg autectic) but may not be suitable for high temperature applications. High temperature applications require materials able to withstand the heat. HT choices include ceramics such as Al-N, BeO, AlSiC, Al2O3 (Al-O) and others. Among ceramic options, BeO has the highest rate of thermal conductivity at 280. Other popular options include tungsten, copper tungsten, copper moly (CuMo), BeCu and more.




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