Selecting Pin Fin Heat Sinks for Surface Mount Devices

Focus:

Pin fin heatsinks can provide high-performance cooling of surface-mount semiconductor components. Heatsink construction can be tailored to optimize performance based on application factors such as airspeed, type of heat source, semiconductor package type, available space, allowable weight, preferred method of assembly, and cost. In specifying pin fin heatsinks to meet these needs, designers can specify heatsink material (copper or aluminum), pin configuration (pin diameter, density and geometry), heatsink footprint and height, and method of attachment. This article provides a step-by-step guide to specifying each of these parameters when ordering pin fin heatsinks. Newer pin fin options such as splayed pins are discussed.

What you’ll learn:

• How to select pin-fin heatsinks for surface-mount devices
• How to specify pin-fin heatsinks for different airspeed environments and other application requirements

Notes:

Article does not explain how to determine the thermal resistance required of the heatsink in the application. For that see, sources such as "How to Size Heat Sinks for Semiconductors," available at http://www.aavidthermalloy.com/technical/papers/semisize.shtml.

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Author & Publication:

no author specified, Cool Innovations, Electronic Design, Mar 21 2006

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