An Introduction to PCM Heat Sinks
- Magazine Article
- 19AERP02_02
- English
With the exception of thermal storage heat sinks, the term heat sink is a misnomer. Standard heat sinks for electronics cooling are actually heat exchangers, taking the heat from the electronics, and transferring it to a fluid, either air or coolant. Phase Change Material (PCM) heat sinks are the only heat sinks that actually act as a (temporary) sink for heat. They are emerging in the thermal management realm to solve thermal problems in systems where active solutions cannot be used. When there is no place to dissipate the heat generated by electric components, a PCM heat sink is capable of absorbing the generated waste heat [
Phase Change Materials (PCMs) store thermal energy by the phase change from solid to liquid. This is an advantage, since the latent heat from melting or freezing is at least 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than the energy stored by the specific heat over a representative 10°C change in temperature. PCM applications in electronics thermal management include: