Time to read: 13 min
In a world of ever-increasing electronics, our lives are continuously impacted by devices that incorporate some sort of heat-generating circuitry. When it comes to electronics that dissipate power in the form of heat during normal operation, it is often necessary to manage this heat, to ensure the components don’t exceed their maximum allowable temperatures.
One of the most common methods to manage power dissipation is to use a heat sink. A heat sink is a substance or device that absorbs or dissipates especially unwanted heat from a process or an electronic device. Heat sinks are used on a broad range of electronics, ranging from CPUs to motor drivers.
The purpose of this article is to walk through the basics of heat sinks and heat sink design, including the calculations involved in defining the proper heat sink for any application. In the following example of proper heat sink design, the common L298 (multiwatt15) full-bridge driver chip will be utilized, as it produces a significant amount of heat when operating at the upper limit of its range.
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