Heat Sink Performance Analysis through Numerical Technique

Abstract: The increase in dissipated power per unit area of electronic components sets higher demands on the performance of the heat sink. Also if we continue at our current rate of miniaturisation, laptops and other electronic devices can get heated up tremendously. Hence we require a better heat dissipating system to overcome the excess heat generating problem of using nanoelectronics, which is expected to power the next generation of computers. To handle the excessive and often unpredictable heating up of high performance electronic components like microprocessors, we need to predict the temperature profile of the heat sink used. This also helps us to select the best heat sink for the operating power range of any microprocessor. Understanding the temperature profile of a heat sink and a microprocessor helps us to handle its temperature efficiently for a range of loads. In this work, a method to estimate the normal response of a heat sink to various loads of a microprocessor is explained.