Zipper fin heat sinks offer lightweight performance

11th March 2015

Advanced Thermal Solutions (ATS Europe BV)

Barney Scott

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Advanced Thermal Solutions' Zipper Fin heat sinks protect components from the dangers of excess heat, at low cost. Zipper fins are machined from thin sheet metal, typically aluminium or copper, and are formed into custom shapes. The sheets are designed to interlock with a narrow space between their layers. The fin assembly is wave soldered to a metal base, forming a rigid, light heat sink.

The zipper fin production process yields a lower cost heat sink than bonded fin designs. This is mainly because bonded heat sinks require more expensive tooling to manufacture. Zipper fin heat sinks can also be made in high aspect ratio fin profiles, enabling taller, thinner and more tightly packed fins for higher cooling performance.

Zipper fin sinks can be designed with integral ducts to contain and optimise cooling airflow. This improves thermal performance, particularly with active sinks that receive airflows from fans and blowers. For many of these designs, the top surface of the heat sink can also be used as a heat spreader for hot components.

Zipper fin heat sinks allow the combined use of copper and aluminium, whereby the copper base allows for optimal heat spreading while the aluminium fins ensure the heat sink will be lightweight.

With the benefits of higher performance and lighter weight, ATS zipper fin heat sinks can be used to cool LEDs, as well as hot components in telecomms, datacomms, military and embedded applications.