Electric vehicles, renewable energies, digitalization, automation – the trend toward electrification is growing in applications where reliability and durability are crucial. This also increases the demand for high-performance cooling solutions. CTX specifies three factors that are important for high-efficiency heat sinks.
Credit: CTX Thermal Solutions
A high fin density allows CTX to produce heat sinks with a large heat-dissipating surface in a compact design
The most important requirement for effective cooling solutions is a sufficiently large surface. This enables fast heat dissipation in power electronics, and is why classic heat sinks are equipped with fins – the narrower and more numerous, the better. Typical manufacturing processes are extrusion and die-casting. In these processes, a forming tool is used to create the structures necessary for heat dissipation, in large quantities.
Manufacturing processes optimize the cooling capacity
The second efficiency factor is low thermal resistance. This can be achieved at the location where the fins are connected to the base plate. CTX adapts production-related transitions by means of CNC machining. Alternatively, the skived fin process can be used to pare the fins from a metal block. This produces very fine fins that remain connected to the heat sink base with no transitions.
Finally, the choice of material is also crucial. Although copper offers the highest thermal conductivity (up to 400 W/mK), it is used only rarely due to its high price and weight. Aluminum is less expensive, lighter, and has a thermal conductivity of 180 to 235 W/mK, which is optimal with the right engineering and manufacturing process. One example is cold forging. This process produces an extremely homogeneous and dense material structure. As a result, the thermal conductivity of the heat sink is higher than that of the feedstock.
CTX Thermal Solutions overs one of the leading product ranges for heat sinks in Europe. In addition to standard heat sinks, the company also manufactures application-specific cooling solutions.