5G, AI, and IoT are all booming technologies nowadays and will soon be everywhere in our daily life. One predominant factor in these technologies is “heat management”. As a leading thermal solution provider, Zaward’s corporate responsibility is to promote cooling knowledge and help people get along with heat harmoniously for a comfy lifestyle. This time, we will share with you factors that affect thermal performance and continue in-depth discussion in upcoming newsletters.
Thermal resistance refers to a temperature difference that a material resists the heat flow. Its unit is K/W. K means the temperature difference between the heat source and the environment, and W is for power consumption. In general, the better the thermal conductivity of an object is, the lower the thermal resistance will be. By knowing the thermal resistance, we can determine the geometric design and related parameters, then maximize the heat dissipation of a heat sink.
Thanks to the outstanding thermal conductivity, copper- and aluminium alloy are popular material when it comes to heat sink manufacture. In principle, copper provides superior thermal conductivity than aluminium does. Besides, its characteristics of heat absorption and anti-corrosion surpass those of aluminium.However, if you are budget-saving-oriented, the aluminium heat sink is also the other option.
As the heat is received from the base and dissipates through the fins, the fin design plays an important role in the heat sink. Different manufacture processes produce different fin structures like
wavy fins of the bonded heat sink, slightly bent and slant fins of the skiving heat sink, pin fins of the cold forging heat sink. Fin height is another factor for fin design. The higher the fin is, the more efficient the heat transfer can achieve due to bigger scale. However, there is still a limitation in the manufacture, so-called “torque ratio”, of which the formula is: torque ratio = fin height / fin gap. After years of innovation and improvement, the highest aspect ratio Zaward can achieve now is nearly 20. The ratio can vary depending on the overall structure of each heat sink design.
During the process of heat dissipation, the rough surface may increase heat flow resistance. To solve this problem and enhance efficiency, thermal interface material is widely applied. The best advantage of thermal interface material is that it can fill the tiny space between an electronic component and a heat sink base. When it comes to select the suitable interfaces, you need to consider the electrical resistivity of the material, contact pressure, and the dimension of the surface gaps. In practical applications, thermal pads and thermal grease are the most popular interfaces in thermal solutions.
For more product details, please visit our website. Any inquiries about thermal solutions are welcome. If you have any questions, please contact us. Any topics you want to know more, just share your thoughts with us.
