In Part 1 of our 2 part series on Heat Sink Types, we covered the following heat sink types: Extruded, Stamped, Bonded Fin, and Folded Fin. Here in part 2, we will look at active heat sinks, forged, swaged, single fin assembly and skived. At the end, we’ll have a concise cheat sheet for you for easy reference.
Active Heat Sinks are those that have some kind of air mover on them. This might be a fan or blower, and generally it is attached in some way to the heat sink. The air move provides local air helping to cool down a semiconductors hot spot. Many active heat sinks are often seen cooling high end graphics processors (GPUs) on graphics boards. The performance of this kind of heat sink is high. Generally speaking though it’s not a terrific solution long term. Air movers are made up of moving parts (fan, bearings, motor) and while rated as long as they can, the truth is these air movers can break, rendering the underlying heat sink less than effective. These solutions can tend to be costly as well.
Forged Heat Sinks conjure up the image of a blacksmith forming metal into a heat sink, but, in today’s modern world, forging is done by compressing a metal, in this case aluminum or copper. Forged heat sinks may be used in a wide variety of applications. They are medium performing heat sinks that are generally inexpensive to make. Their only real limitation is they are somewhat limited in design and air flow management.
Swaged Heat Sinks are made by a swaging manufacturing process, which is a cousin to the forging process. The swaging process involves forming the metal to a die. Swaged heat sinks generally are very good performers and good for high power applications, that is, power supplies, and other such equipment power equipment. Swaged heat sinks tend to be bulky with a limited ability to manage air flow.
Single Fin Assembly Heat Sinks are versatile for all applications. Their performance can scale from low to high performing. Some of the reasons why thermal engineers use them is because single fin assembly heat sinks are light weight and feature low profiles, so they be deployed in tight spaces. The main drawback is that they can be on the pricey side.
Skived Heat Sinks are those that are produced using the skiving process. The skiving process basically takes a block of metal, often copper, and then create fins by making very fine cuts from that block. Skived heat sinks can be used in many applications requiring medium to high performance. The skiving process produces heat sinks with very high fin density, creating a good deal more surface area for heat dissipation. A drawback though is the thick base often seen in skived heat sinks, higher weight and the heat sinks needing to be placed properly for air flow direction
That wraps up our 2nd part of this two part series. To get a copy of the companion cheat sheet for this information, simply click this link: “Heat Sink Types Cheat Sheet”
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