Cold forging pin fin heat sinks using the cold extrusion process

In this technology, also known as cold forming, a piece of high-purity aluminium or copper (depending on the cooling concept) is pressed into the mould at normal room temperature under high pressure. As a result, the metal - similar to plastic injection moulding - completely fills the mould of the pin heat sink with all its fine structures. Although the forming energy heats the metal slightly, the temperature change is too small to affect the dimensional accuracy of the moulded part.

Due to their extremely homogeneous and dense material structure, heat sinks made using the cold extrusion process offer excellent thermal conductivity, which is often higher than that of the base material. This property can be further optimised by combining it with other cooling technologies. The high dimensional accuracy and surface quality, as well as the high degree of design freedom, allow precise adaptation to complementary fan or liquid-based cooling technologies.

Pin heat sinks are an efficient solution for heat dissipation in electronic components, especially in power electronics, where space and weight are often limited. They are ideally suited as pin fin heat sinks for components with high power dissipation, such as IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors), output stages, MOSFETs (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors), as high-performance LED heat sinks and for similar components.
Thanks to their design, pin heat sinks enable rapid heat spreading and effective heat dissipation, even in compact spaces. The high material density and high thermal conductivity of the pure aluminium alloys or copper alloys help to ensure that the heat is conducted quickly from the base plate to the tips of the pins. This is particularly advantageous in conjunction with forced convection, i.e. when a fan supports heat dissipation.