Power Electronics Cooling
Inefficiencies in power electronics result in large amounts of waste heat that can cause the component junction temperature to exceed the safe operating temperature limit. Natural and forced convection are the preferred method of heat dissipation. The heat sink volume (fin stack) must provide sufficient surface area to remove the heat within the airflow constraints. This typically results in heat sinks that are much larger in size than the heat source components. It is therefore vital to efficiently spread the heat from the concentrated areas and create a nearly isothermal surface at the heat sink base. Solid aluminum and copper have good thermal conductivities but are often insufficient in spreading the heat. ACT integrates highly efficient heat pipes into heat sink bases to increase the effective thermal conductivities to between 600 and 1,200 W/m-K. The effective thermal conductivity can be further increased by optimizing the heat pipe layout configuration. The overall heat sink performance, in terms of reduced thermal resistance, is greatly enhanced by the improved heat spreading at the base.
Natural Convection Heat Sink
Embedded Heat Pipe Heat Sink for Natural Convection Cooling |
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Forced Convection Heat Sink
Forced Convection Heat Sink with embedded heat pipe base |
Optimized Folded Fins for Forced Convection
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Thermal Optimization
 Temperature Profile on Standard Extruded Heat Sink |
Temperature Profile on Extrusion with Embedded Heat Pipes
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