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Electrical & Electronics Engineering vocabulary · Circuits and Components

Heat sink

Meaning in electrical & electronics engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In electrical & electronics engineering, heat sink means: A metal part, usually finned aluminium, attached to a hot component such as a transistor or a regulator to carry heat away into the surrounding air.

In Turkish: soğutucu, ısı emici, alüminyum soğutucu

How it is used

Used in power electronics, drives and LED lighting. Engineers choose a heat sink by its thermal resistance (°C/W), mount the part with thermal paste or a thermal pad and sometimes add a fan. A part 'needs a heat sink' when it would otherwise overheat.

Example sentences

  1. The MOSFET reaches 110 °C without a heat sink.

  2. Put a thin layer of thermal paste between the regulator and the heat sink.

Common collocations

  • thermal resistance
  • thermal paste
  • mount on a heat sink
  • aluminium heat sink
  • MOSFETA type of field-effect transistor controlled by the voltage on its gate. It is the most common switch in power electronics and digital chips, and its terminals are called gate, drain and source.
  • voltage regulatorA circuit or IC that keeps its output voltage constant even when the input voltage or the load changes. It can be linear, such as an LDO, or switching, such as a buck converter.
  • transistorA semiconductor device used to switch or amplify signals. A small current or voltage at one terminal controls a much larger current through the other two.
  • ratingThe maximum voltage, current, power or temperature that a device is designed to handle safely in normal use, as stated by the manufacturer. Rated values appear on nameplates and in datasheets.

More terms: Circuits and Components

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