In electronic systems, a heat sink is a passive heat exchanger component that cools a device by dissipating heat into the surrounding air. In computers, heat sinks are used to cool central processing units or graphics processors. Heat sinks are used with high-power semiconductor devices such as power transistors and optoelectronic devices such as lasers and light emitting diodes (LEDs), wherever the heat dissipation ability of the basic device package is insufficient to control its temperature.
A heat sink is designed to increase the surface area in contact with the cooling medium surrounding it, such as the air. Approach air velocity, choice of material, fin (or other protrusion) design and surface treatment are some of the factors which affect the thermal performance of a heat sink. Heat sink attachment methods and thermal interface materials also affect the eventual die temperature of the integrated circuit. Thermal adhesive or thermal grease fills the air gap between the heat sink and device to improve its thermal performance. Theoretical, experimental and numerical methods can be used to determine a heat sink's thermal performance.
Read more about Heat Sink: Heat Transfer Principle, Methods To Determine Performance
Famous quotes containing the words heat and/or sink:
“Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright,
But looked to near, have neither heat nor light.”
—John Webster (1580–1625)
“After reading Howitt’s account of the Australian gold-diggings one evening,... I asked myself why I might not be washing some gold daily, though it were only the finest particles,—why I might not sink a shaft down to the gold within me, and work that mine.... At any rate, I might pursue some path, however solitary and narrow and crooked, in which I could walk with love and reverence.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)