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Electronics cooling

High Power Notebook Heat Sink

Heat Sink And Thermal Design
Download Slim Modular Fan Heat Sink PDF (68k)

Heat Sink Design Goals and Constraints

  • High end laptop computers generate as much as 35 Watts of heat
  • Limited space for a thermal, heat sink solution
  • Heat sink solution must be light weight
  • Heat sink solution must be economical

Heat Sink Solution:

Heat Pipe Heatsink

A compact, high capacity, thermal heat sink solution was designed by Enertron engineers to solve this problem. The height of the heat sink solution is only 14 mm, and has a theta of 1.5°C/W, CPU case to ambient. The product consists of an aluminum heat sink base, two heat pipes, a fin array, and a blower.

Heat Sink Manufacturing

Due to the complexity of the problem, every aspect of the heat sink design had to be optimized. A phase change interface pad, due to its low thermal impedance, was used to mate the heat sink with the CPU. The use of two heat pipes provided a larger conductive path for the heat to flow both into and out of the heat pipes. The two heat pipes also spread the heat more efficiently over the fins of the heat sink. The optimized pitch of the heat sink fin array was determined by experimentation with the blower.


The heat sink solution was kept lightweight by avoiding copper components (except for the heat pipes). The use of a die cast aluminum heat sink base allowed for a more complex heat sink shape, while reducing the overall cost of the heat sink.


To learn more about high power notebook cooling, or if you have an application you would like to discuss, please call one of our engineers at 1-877-ENERTRON (1-877-363-7876).

Heat Pipe And Thermal Solutions