A heat sink (also commonly spelled heatsink) is a passive heat exchanger that transfers the heat

generated by an electronic or a mechanical device to a fluid medium, often air or a liquid coolant, where
it is dissipated away from the device, thereby allowing regulation of the device's temperature at optimal
levels. In computers, heat sinks are used to cool central processing units or graphics processors. Heat
sinks are used with high-power semiconductor devices such as power transistors, where the heat
dissipation ability of the component itself is insufficient to moderate its temperature.
A heat sink is designed to maximize its surface area in contact with the cooling medium surrounding it,
such as the air. Air velocity, choice of material, protrusion design and surface treatment are factors that
affect the performance of a heat sink. Heat sink attachment methods and thermal interface materials
also affect the die temperature of the integrated circuit. Thermal adhesive or thermal grease improve
the heat sink's performance by filling air gaps between the heat sink and the heat spreader on the device
Copper is used because it has many desirable properties for thermally efficient and durable heat
exchangers.

Heat transfer principle

A heat sink transfers thermal energy from a higher temperature device to a lower temperature
fluid medium. The fluid medium is frequently air, but can also be water, refrigerants or oil. If the
fluid medium is water, the heat sink is frequently called a cold plate. In thermodynamics a heat
sink is a heat reservoir that can absorb an arbitrary amount of heat without significantly changing
temperature. Practical heat sinks for electronic devices must have a temperature higher than the
surroundings to transfer heat by convection, radiation, and conduction. The power supplies of
electronics are not 100% efficient, so extra heat is produced that may be detrimental to the
function of the device. As such, a heat sink is included in the design to disperse heat to improve
efficient energy use.

Manufacturing Methods
Depending on their shapes and materials, heat sinks can be made by many manufacturing
methods. The most common and cost effective methods include extrusion, forging, casting and
stamping. Other higher-cost methods include CNC machining, skiving and swaging. Although
they are expensive, they can produce heat sinks with features that cannot be done by other
methods.

Stampings - Copper or aluminium sheet metals are stamped into desired shapes. They offer a low
cost solution to low density thermal problems. They are suitable for high volume production,
because advanced tooling with high speed stamping would lower costs. Additional labour-saving
options, such as clips and interface materials, can be factory applied to help to reduce assembly
costs
. Extrusions - This is the most popular method of manufacturing heatsinks. Extrusion is the
process by which long straight metal parts can be produced. It is done by squeezing metal in a
closed cavity through a tool, known as a die, using either a mechanical or hydraulic press. After
the metal has cooled, it is cut to the size you want the heatsink to be, based on motherboard
standard sizes.
Forging - This is the process whereby metal is heated and shaped by plastic deformation by
suitably applying compressive force. Usually the compressive force is in the form of hammer
blows using a power hammer or a press. Heatsink manufacturers rarely use this method but it is
used occasionally, and is definitely worth mentioning.
Bonded/Fabricated Fins - Most air cooled heatsinks are convection limited, and the overall
thermal performance of an air cooled heatsink can often be improved significantly if more
surface area can be exposed to the air stream. These high performance heatsinks utilise thermally
conductive aluminium-filled epoxy to bond planar fins onto a grooved extrusion base plate.
Die Castings - Die casting is where the metal is injected into the mould under high pressure of
1,450-30,500psi. This results in a more uniform part, generally good surface finish and good
dimensional accuracy, as good as 0.2% of casting dimension. In other words, you can make more
complex shapes using die casting than you can using other methods such as extrusion.
Folded Fins - Corrugated sheet metal in either aluminium or copper increases surface area, hence
the volumetric performance. The heatsink is then attached to either a base plate or directly to the
heating surface via epoxying or brazing. It is not suitable for high profile heatsinks on account of
the availability and fin efficiency.

Read more: http://www.tweaktown.com/guides/237/heatsink_theory_guide/index4.html

Machining

Heat sinks are machined out of a metal block by material removal to create the inter-fin spaces.
Most commonly they are manufactured by gang saw cutting on a computer numerical control
(CNC) machine. The gang saw consists of multiple saw cutters on an arbor with precise spacing,
which depends on the heat sink geometry to be machined. Often, during machining, the fins are
damaged and distorted, and require extensive secondary operations. Material is also consumed in
an unproductive manner by the generation of scrap metal.

Skiving

In the skiving process, fins are machined using special tooling, whereby precisely sliced layers
from an extruded metal block are bent at the base of the slice to form slender curved fins. Since
the fins and base are an integral unit, the interface resistance seen in folded and bonded heat
sinks is not present. . Aluminum 6063 is the preferred material on account of its superior
machinability and strength, but copper arrays can also be made. The depth of cut determines the
fin thickness and can be very low, resulting in extremely thin fin structures, yielding light and
competitive heat sink designs.

https://www.google.com.pk/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=12&ved=0ahUKEwj02NvxzqPRAhUBWBQKHdQ7CAg4ChAWCB
wwAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.electronics-cooling.com%2F2007%2F08%2Fdesign-for-
manufacturability-of-forced-convection-air-cooled-fully-ducted-heat-sinks%2F&usg=AFQjCNEu4C-
qXSUkTALGDYA0-WUg8SqnzQ&sig2=Ek-F-gpaWlPZKJ9waPZkgQ&cad=rja