ATS has published two articles from the past on the topic of, “Why use active heat sinks” that we thought were worth putting some focus on to help our thermal management practitioners. The fall back to an active heat sink can be alluring (what’s easier than slapping a cpu cooler fan onto your heatsink? More air should cure all thermal management ills, no?)
The first article, “Active heat sinks direct air on hot chips but are they always the right choice?” we published around the thought process on if an active heat sink was even necessary for your design. It’s a good read to help prime your personal thought process and to think through your system design first.
The second article, “How system airflow affects active heat sinks: ATS ‘how to’ white paper“, covers the topic of the affect of your overall system airflow on your active heat sink. Cooling fans consist of an aggregate of airfoils, i.e., blades positioned around a hub that is driven by an electric motor. Due to their airfoil nature, a pressure differential is required across the blades to create the required flow. Therefore if this pressure differential is disturbed, fans will suffer performance degredation.