News and New Products

Flared-pin heat sinks use natural convection to cool "green" applications

By Margery Conner, Technical Editor -- EDN, 1/5/2009

Cool Innovations has introduced a line of flared-pin fin heat sinks featuring an array of sparsely configured round pins that slant outward, a configuration that cools components in natural convection environments. The rugged, forged-aluminum devices are suitable for harsh industrial and outdoor environments for applications such as solar cells and high-brightness LEDs. The flared-pin configuration offers a performance premium as great as 28% over traditional pin-fin heat sinks. For example, a flared-pin heat sink with a 1-in.² footprint has a thermal resistance of 12.65°C/W, whereas a traditional heat sink with the same footprint has a thermal resistance of 16.14°C/W.

The omnidirectional spacing of the pins ensures that the heat sinks operate efficiently in any orientation. The heat sinks are available in square, rectangular, and round configurations, with footprints of 1×1 to 5×5 in. and heights of 0.7 to 2 in. Prices begin at $3 per unit.