page_title: Heat sink
hierarchical_section_title: Heat sink
caption_attribution_description: English: Typical heatsink-fan combination found on a consumer laptop. The heatpipes make direct contact with the CPU, and GPU, conducting heat away from the component and dissipating it within the fin-stack mounted to the exhaust port of the cooling fan.
context_page_description: A heat sink is a passive heat exchanger that transfers the heat generated by an electronic or a mechanical device to a fluid medium, often air or a liquid coolant, where it is dissipated away from the device, thereby allowing regulation of the device's temperature. In computers, heat sinks are used to cool CPUs, GPUs, and some chipsets and RAM modules. Heat sinks are used with high-power semiconductor devices such as power transistors and optoelectronics such as lasers and light emitting diodes, where the heat dissipation ability of the component itself is insufficient to moderate its temperature.
  A heat sink is designed to maximize its surface area in contact with the cooling medium surrounding it, such as the air. Air velocity, choice of material, protrusion design and surface treatment are factors that affect the performance of a heat sink. Heat sink attachment methods and thermal interface materials also affect the die temperature of the integrated circuit. Thermal adhesive or thermal grease improve the heat sink's performance by filling air gaps between the heat sink and the heat spreader on the device. A heat sink is usually made out of aluminium or copper.
context_section_description: A heat sink (also commonly spelled heatsink) is a passive heat exchanger that transfers the heat generated by an electronic or a mechanical device to a fluid medium, often air or a liquid coolant, where it is dissipated away from the device, thereby allowing regulation of the device's temperature. In computers, heat sinks are used to cool CPUs, GPUs, and some chipsets and RAM modules. Heat sinks are used with high-power semiconductor devices such as power transistors and optoelectronics such as lasers and light emitting diodes (LEDs), where the heat dissipation ability of the component itself is insufficient to moderate its temperature.
  A heat sink is designed to maximize its surface area in contact with the cooling medium surrounding it, such as the air. Air velocity, choice of material, protrusion design and surface treatment are factors that affect the performance of a heat sink. Heat sink attachment methods and thermal interface materials also affect the die temperature of the integrated circuit. Thermal adhesive or thermal grease improve the heat sink's performance by filling air gaps between the heat sink and the heat spreader on the device. A heat sink is usually made out of aluminium or copper.
caption: Typical heatsink-fan combination found on a consumer laptop. The heatpipes which contain a working fluid make direct contact with the CPU and GPU, conducting heat away from the component and transferring it to the fin-stack mounted on the exhaust port of the cooling fan. The fin-stack acts as a fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger transferring thermal energy from the working fluid within the heatpipe(s) to ambient air at dead-state condition.
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