9
HOW TO SELECT A HEAT SINK
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Heat sinks reduce and maintain device
temperature below the maximum allowable
temperature of the device in its normal oper-
ating environment. In selecting a heat sink to
achieve this goal, four fundamental parame-
ters must be known about the application:
• The amount of heat, Q, being generated by
the semiconductor device in watts (W).
•The maximum allowable junction temper-
ature,Tj, of the device in degrees celsius
(°C): this information is available from the
semiconductor manufacturer’s data book
or fact sheet.
•The maximum temperature of the
ambient cooling air,Ta, in °C.
•The type of convection cooling in the
area of the device: is it natural or forced?
If it is forced convection, the air flow
velocity, in linear feet per minute (LFM),
must be known.
BASIC FORMULAS:
Heat is a form of energy that flows from a
higher temperature location (i.e. the semi-
conductor junction at Tj) to a lower tempera-
ture location (i.e. the surrounding ambient
air at Ta). In semiconductor devices, heat will
flow from the device to the ambient air
through many paths, each of which repre-
sents resistance to the heat flow.This resist-
ance is called thermal resistance, denoted
as θin °C/W, and is defined as the ratio
between the amount of total heat being
transferred and the temperature difference
that drives the heat flow.The total thermal
resistance of a system for a given device
can therefore be expressed as:
where θis the thermal resistance in degrees
C per watt, and where ja represents junction-
to-ambient.Thermal resistance is a measure
of relative performance. A low thermal resist-
ance represents better performance than a
high thermal resistance.
A system that has a lower thermal resistance
can either dissipate more heat for a given
temperature difference, or dissipate a given
amount of heat with a smaller temperature
difference.
In cooling electronic devices, heat sinks
lower the overall junction to ambient ther-
mal resistance.The actual thermal path runs
through the heat sink when it is mounted
on the device by means of an attachment
mechanism. In this case, the total thermal
resistance, θja, is the sum of all the individ-
ual resistances which represent the physical
aspect of the thermal path. There are three
thermal resistances that are commonly
used to express the total resistance:
1) the junction-to-case resistance, θjc, to
account for the thermal path across the
internal structure of the device,
2) the case-to-sink resistance, θcs, which is
also called the interface resistance, to
account for the path across the interface
between the device and the heat sink,
3) the sink-to-ambient resistance, θsa, to
account for the thermal path between the
base of the heat sink to the ambient air.
It follows that θja = θjc+θcs + θsa.
Realistically, a typical thermal designer has
no access to the internal structure of the
device, and can only control two resistances
outside of the device, θcs and θsa.
Therefore, for a device with a known θjc
obtained from the device manufacturer’s
data book, θcs and θsa become the main
design variables in selecting a heat sink.
Thermal interface between the case and
the heat sink is controlled in a variety of
manners with different heat conducting
materials.The interface resistance between
the case and the heat sink is dependent on
four variables: the thermal resistivity of the
interface material (ρ°C,W–inch), the aver-
age material thickness (t, inches), the area
of the thermal contact footprint (A, inch2),
and the ability to replace voids due to fin-
ish or flatness (sink or chip) with a better
conductor than air.The interface thermal
resistance is then expressed as:
NOTE: The thermal resistivity (ρ), of any
material, is the reciprocal of its thermal
conductivity (k). Therefore, if the conductivi-
ty is known, its resistivity can be calculated.
The expression is:
when k is in units of
Tj–Ta
θja = Q
ρ•t
θcs = A
TYPICAL VALUES FOR THERMAL
RESISTIVITY ρρ(°C/W-INCH):
copper (pure) 0.10
aluminum (1100 series) 0.19
aluminum (5000 series) 0.28
aluminum (6000 series) 0.17
beryllium oxide 0.32
carbon steel 0.84
alumina 1.15
anodized finish 5.60
silicon rubber 81.00
mica 66.00
mylar 236.00
silicone grease 204.00
dead air 1200.00
Note: These values do not take into account
the contact resistance that will depend on the
filling of voids with the interface material. i.e.
copper is much more conductive than grease,
but grease is used since copper will not flow
to fill in the voids that may be present.
Once the θcs is calculated, the required ther-
mal resistance from the sink to ambient (θsa)
is easily calculated by the following equation:
The above information will allow you to use
the catalog’s performance graphs in choosing
a standard, ready-to-use, heat sink to meet
your requirements.
Tj–Ta
θsa = (θjc + θcs)
Q
Btu•inch
hr•ft2 •°F
273.2
ρ=
k
How To Select a Heat Sink