Material Selection for Heat Sinks in HPC Microchip-Based Circuitries

Heat sinks are integral components of high-powered computing system (HPC) microchips which are extensively used in modern electronics and power supply circuitries with intelligence and effective control capability. Integrated circuits typically generate large amount of heat sufficient to damage the chip and other sensitive electronic components of the circuitry. Heat sinks are applied to accomplish a continuous cooling of the microchip by conducting thermal energy away from it and dissipating same into the environment. Suitable materials for the heat sink are therefore important for effective protection of the microchip. In this study, material selection for heat sinks applicable in microchip-based circuitries was carried out using the CES EduPack software. Over 3,000 candidate materials were first screened using design constraints after which shortlisted ones were ranked using design objectives. Appropriate trade-offs were applied to select the final material which was an alloy adjudged most suitable for the defined function, objectives and constraints.