Comparison analysis of 5 types of LED heat sinks
Currently, thermal issue is one of the biggest technical problems of LED lighting, bad thermal cooling is restriction for the development of LED driven power supply and electrolytic capacitors. So the heat should be dissipated in time to cool down the temperature of LED cavity and the power supply and other electronic components can be protected from working in overheating enviroment for a long time.
AS the LED light source does not have infrared or ultraviolet rays itself, the LED light source itself does not have radiation heat dissipation function. The heat dissipation path of LED lighting lamps can only dissipate the heat by the heat sink closely conducted with the LED lamp board plate. The heat sink should has great thermal conductivity, thermal convection and thermal radiation.
For any type of heat sink, In addition to being able to quickly transmit heat from the heat sources to the surface of the radiator, the most important thing is to dissipate the heat to the air as soon as possible, thermal conductivity only determines the thermal transferring efficiency, and heat convection is the main function of the radiator. The heat dissipation performance is mainly determined by material property, shape, and natural flow strength which determine the heat dissipation efficiency.
Most LED lighting sources still use low-voltage (VF=3.2V) and high-current (IF=200-700mA) LED lamp beads. Due to the beads will generate huge heat during operation, a heat sink with high thermal conductivity must be used. For the LED thermal solution, there are mainly 5 types of heat sinks: Aluminum extruded heat sink, die casting heat sink, stamping heat sink, skived fin heat sink, and aluminum fin heat pipe heat sink.
Aluminum extruded heat sink: Aluminum extruded heat sink is the most cost effective thermal solution, which is manufactured by pushing the aluminum ingot through a tooling die to get the extruded profile, then cut to length, etching, CNC, anodizing, etc. to produce a finished product. the material type of aluminum extruded heat sink is usually AL 6063.
Die casting heat sink: Die casting heat sink is produced by put the liquid aluminum alloy to the tooling die to make the feature and specification, the material of die casting heat sink is often ADC10 or ADC12.
Stamping heat sink: This type of heat sink is using the high speed stamping machine to manufacture the heat sinks, the material could be aluminum or copper, it's quite cost effective and lightweight, usually this heat sink is used in low power LEDs.
Skived fin heat sink: Skived fin heat sink is manufactured by slicing the fins from a metal such as copper or aluminum, the skiving technology enables high fin density and thin fin heat sink stucture which can create more surface area in a given volume, so the heat dissipation performance is much better than extruded heat sinks and die casting heat sinks. and due to the fins are produced from the base, so there is no joint between the fins and base, which means there is no thermal resistance, and the heat can be conducted to the fins rapidly.
Aluminum fin heat pipe heat sink: As we know, the thermal conductivity of heat pipe is much better than any metal, so the heat generated by the LEDs can be transferred to the aluminum fins very quickly, and as the aluminum has excellent heat dissipation ability, so the fins are usually manufactured by aluminum. This type of heat sink is often used in high power LEDs.
Sinda Thermal is professional thermal expert, we are offering many thermal solutions and heat sinks to the global customers, we can design the optimized performance heat sinks and manufacture them in house, our factory owns over 100 employees and many precise facilities and equipment. Please contact us freely if you have any thermal requirements.
