Heat-Sink Attachment Key To Optimum Thermal Transfer For Enclosure Design

摘要

Incorporating ever-increasing processing power into ever-shrinking electronic components and tighter PC board layouts is creating new thermal management concerns for designers of computing equipment and other electronic devices. Mechanical heat-sink devices, featuring a fin design with a high surface-area-to-footprint ratio, are one method used to transfer heat away from electronic components. But there's more to effective thermal mitigation than simply adding heat sink devices. According to The Uptime Institute, the trend in the heat load per product footprint has grown tenfold for server and communications applications over the past decade - to more than 6,000 watts/sq. ft. in some applications. And it is projected to go even higher, making thermal transfer a more crucial aspect of electronics designs. The heat sink attachment option chosen could have a significant impact on the efficiency of the thermal management design, since each available approach comes with distinct advantages and disadvantages in terms of size, cost, complexity, and thermal effectiveness. How well each one translates into performance in the intended application can be affected by other considerations - including operating conditions such as shock or vibration. Changes in mounting hardware, tolerance differences among various components, or lack of attention during the assembly process, could all affect the efficiency of thermal transfer performance in the ultimate real-world application. Some of the simpler designs offer obvious advantages in terms of low cost, but can incur problems in more demanding applications. The use of double-sided tape or adhesive compounds can be difficult to implement in the manufacturing environment and can compromise the thermal transfer efficiency of the heat sink. And as the size of the heat sink increases, withstanding shock or vibration can become more challenging.