CUSTOM HEATSINK SOLUTIONS BY RADIAN

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work when it comes to cooling electronic devices. Every electronic device’s size, power requirements, and thermal characteristics are unique. This is where custom heatsinks come into play.

A custom heatsink is designed to your device’s specifications, ensuring optimal thermal management. By considering factors such as the device’s power dissipation, airflow, and space constraints, we can create a heatsink that maximizes heat dissipation and minimizes the risk of overheating.

With our depth of expertise, we excel in custom heatsink manufacturing. We collaborate closely with our clients to understand their distinct requirements and precisely manufacture customized heatsinks that uniquely fit their devices. Whether you need a heatsink for a computer processor, power electronics, or any other application, we have the expertise to deliver exceptional results.

Custom Heatsink Solutions

What is a Custom Heatsink?

Components can overheat and malfunction without proper cooling, leading to costly repairs or complete failures. Custom-designed heatsinks are specifically designed to fit the unique needs of a particular device or application. They can be made from various materials, including aluminum and copper. They can be designed in various shapes and sizes to fit even the most complex electronic systems.

Radian Thermal Products can use one of our wide range of standard heatsinks, and then modify to meet the thermal application requirements. Customizing a standard heatsink helps reduce a heatsink cost, and also can reduce the prototype time dramatically. For larger heatsinks, we can also look an existing extrusion before it has been cut for a standard heatsink. Where a standard heatsink can not be modified, our engineering team will then design a custom heatsink solution using the most appropriate manufacturing process.

Benefits of Working with Radian

As a custom heatsink manufacturer, we pride ourselves on providing our clients with the highest-quality cooling solutions. We ensure that our heatsinks are durable, reliable, and effective. We work closely with our clients throughout the design and manufacturing process to ensure that their needs are met and that the final product is exactly what they need.

Working with a custom heatsink manufacturer is the best way to ensure you get the best possible cooling solution. By partnering with us, you can rest assured that your electronic components will be protected from overheating and that your device will perform at its best for years.

Custom Heatsink Design

When our Engineering team starts a design of a custom heatsink, it is very important that the customer has thought about a few factors such as:

  • Space Available for Heatsink Application: Width, Length, & Height
  • Power of the source in Watts, and size.
  • Air Speed in LFM & Direction of Air Flow
  • Maximum Operating Case or Junction Temperature
  • Local Ambient Temperature
  • Preferred attachment method
  • Thermal Interface Properties
  • Estimated Annual Usage & budget

ENGINEERING SERVICES

Our Engineers here at Radian will work with you on feasibility evaluation at no cost. Our team provides custom designs from simple extrusions to complex 2-phase integration. Our goal is to get you and your team situated with a solution that brings confidence along with quality. Radian’s team assures support for every step of the way.

  • 1. Feasibility study

  • 2. Modeling/Drafting

  • 3. Proto Evaluation

  • 4. Re-spins

  • 5. Production

  • 6. Sustaining

Extruded heatsink with integrated copper heat-pipes and pedestal

Extruded heatsink with integrated copper heat-pipes and pedestal

Heat-pipe integrated radiator

Heat-pipe integrated radiator

Vapor Chamber fansink

Vapor Chamber fansink

Custom Heatsink Types

With this information, Radian Thermal Products can then work with your team to select the best custom heatsink option for your thermal application.

Custom Heatpipe Heatsink

Heat-Pipe Custom Heatsink

A typical heat pipe consists of a vacuum sealed pipe or tube made of a material that is compatible with the working fluid such as copper for water heat pipes. Utilizing heat pipes rapidly moves heat to another region with low temperature rise within itself.

Custom Vapor Chamber Heatsink

Vapor Chamber Custom Heatsink

A Vapor Chamber is essentially a planar heat-pipe spreading heat rapidly within its envelope. This high-end technology essentially allows the base of the heatsink to be isothermal. Optimum when point heat source is smaller than area of vapor chamber base.

Machined Custom Heatsink

Machined Custom Heatsink

machined custom heatsink uses Radian’s highly versatile machining capabilities. With low set-up costs, and machined custom heatsinks are ideal for low to medium volumes. Radian provides high precision machined heatsinks with complex features, contours, cut-outs and through-holes.

Extruded Custom Heatsink

Extruded Custom Heatsink

Aluminum Extrusions have conventionally been the predominant approach for low cost custom heatsink production.

Casted Heatsink

Casted Custom Heatsink

The Investment Casting process can cost-effectively produce complex custom heatsink designs in a short amount of time. Investment Casting is ideally suited for producing prototypes and short to medium volume runs.

Die Cast Custom Heatsink

Die-Cast Custom Heatsink

Aluminum offers a cost effective Die-Cast custom heatsink solutions for medium, to large production volumes. Radian uses Thermocast which is a proprietary technology to die-cast a high thermal conductivity Aluminum alloy with a thermal conductivity of ~160 W/m-k.

Forged Custom Heatsink

Forged Custom Heatsink

Forged custom heatsinks can be manufactured using special open die tooling and intense pressure to form thin-sectioned, high precision heatsinks. High aspect ratios can be achieved using Precision Forging.

Skived Custom Heatsink

Skived Custom Heatsink

Skived custom heatsink combines special cutting tools and a controlled shaving technique to produce a heatsink from a single block of material, such as copper or aluminum. The typical result is a thin-finned heatsink, with a dense population of uniformly shaped and distributed fins.

Stamped Fin Custom Heatsink

Stamped Fin Custom Heatsink

A Stamped Fin custom heatsink is made from sheets of aluminum or copper, where the metal is stamped into a particular configuration based on the intended application. For maximum design flexibility, fins can be stamped into a broad range of geometries and thicknesses. A stamped Fin custom heatsink is a useful approach for medium to high volume production.

DESIGN PROCESS

Our team is fully equipped with knowledgeable engineers that will personally discuss the project in detail until all points of interest have been covered for studies. Radian team will run feasibility tests utilizing highly acclaimed programs such as Ansys Icepak and Solidworks Flow Simulation. Radian analyzes findings and reports back. Upon feasibility results, Radian provides budgetary costs in respect to proto and production forecasts per style heatsink needed as solution.

Thermal Analysis Solution

RAPID PROTOTYPING

Some designs or analysis do not qualify high tooling costs from the start, nonetheless, support build schedules with production lead-time. Radian encourages risk-evaluation with soft tooling and or fixtures to get parts in hand as soon as possible. Radian supports quick turns with our US-based CNC machine shop that often produces parts ready to ship in 1-2 weeks. Our overseas facilities can produce vapor chambers, heat-pipes, forging, etc. type of heatsinks quicker than half the standard lead-time of production made parts. This often helps the receiving party expedite the time to market or meet stressful timelines of their system product.

Telecommunications

Telecommunications

Medical

Medical

Military

Military

APPLICATIONS

Radian has experience in every industry segment. From Telecommunication to Medical to Military to indoor to rugged outdoor enclosures. Our experience and knowledge of designing for systems plays an important role in understanding your needs, concerns, and much more to make this a suitable relationship now and going forward.

CUSTOM HEATSINK EXAMPLES

A high majority of Radian Thermal Products’ business is the design, development and manufacturing of custom heatsinks for OEM applications that include Thermal Anaysis.  The examples below are just a handful of recent custom heatsink design and development projects.

COPPER HEAT PIPE HEATSINK ASSEMBLY FOR HIGH BRIGHTNESS LED APPLICATION

Copper Heat Pipe Heatsink Assembly For High Brightness LED Application

Our customer was designing a substantially large High Brightness LED Assembly needing to dissipate substantial amount of heat to increase brightness and extend the life of their lighting fixture.

Utilizing advanced thermal analysis techniques, we were able to develop a solution utilizing copper heat pipes embedded in the base of the heatsink to more effectively draw heat from the LEDs  and distribute throughout the heatsink fins.  The end result eliminates hot spots with even distribution of heat across all the plate fins.

CUSTOM HEATSINK DESIGNED FOR EXTRA COOLING

Custom Heatsink Designed for Extra Cooling

Late in the design stages for a networking customer, the customer miscalculated the amount of heat they would need to dissipate.  Having already spun and stuffed their boards, the customer had designed their boards to use our standard BGA Heatsinks with EZ-Snap Mounting Clips. They now required additional heatsink fins, yet had no method available to mount a larger heatsink without re-spinning and re-stuffing all their boards.

To solve the customer’s dilemma, Radian quickly designed and manufactured an extended BGA Heatsink that provided the extra heatsink fins required, while still using the same EZ-Snap Mounting Clip.  This approach solved the problem, saving the customer the customer the extensive costs and time required to re-spin and stuff their boards.

Radian provided the solution without NRE and at costs only slightly higher than the standard BGA Heatsinks, keeping the client on schedule and on budget for the release of their system.

COPPER CUSTOM HEATSINK WITH VAPOR CHAMBER AND STAMPED FINS

Copper Custom Heatsink with Vapor Chamber and Stamped Fins

Radian Thermal Products recently developed this Copper custom heatsink that included a vapor chamber to cool a 103 Watt BGA chip.  This Vapor chamber heatsink has a custom shape to fit the customer’s board design.  The Vapor chamber is embedded with stamped copper fins to dissipate the heat.  Threaded mounting inserts affix the solution with the ideal pressure to mate the solution to the BGA chip.

DOUBLE-SIDED COPPER SKIVED HEATSINK

Double-Sided Copper Skived Heatsink

The application was for a high end-processor card that was to mechanically fit within a 2.5 inch hard-drive slot.  The minimal space allowed for minimal height and required the higher dissipation rate offer by copper and skived fins.  We mounted heatsinks on both the top and bottom of the board to maximize heat dissipation.

COPPER HEATSINK FOR A LASER DIODE IN OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS

Copper Heatsink for a Laser Diode in Optical Communications

Laser diode operating characteristics and life time are greatly affected by the temperature of the semiconductor junction. This is particularly true for the high power laser diode used by Radian’s customer where several watts of waste heat had to be removed from the small semiconductor laser chip. The round shape of Radian’s copper heatsink was tailored to best fit the the laser for improved thermal contact with the heat sink.  The compact fin design provides optimal thermal dissipation. At ambient temperatures of 25°C, this passive device holds the laser under 50°C.

Copper Skived Heatsink with Blower for 1U Server

Copper Skived Heatsink with Blower for 1U Server

The customer had an absolute limit on theta_SA of 0.6 C/W and the power to cool being 50 W. Radian provided a heatsink / blower solution with a theta_SA of only 0.52 C/W consisting of a copper skived heatsink with customized mounting and attached blower with speed control.

Copper Vapor Chambers in a two-sided Stamped Copper Heatsink

Copper Vapor Chambers in a Two-Sided Stamped Copper Heatsink

The customer required an advanced cooling solution to support a servo motor drive application. Radian came up with an enclosure that sandwiches the servo motor with copper vapor chamber on each side.  Each copper vapor chamber is populated with stamped copper fins.  The vapor chamber provide the best method to draw heat from hot-spots on the servo motor and then evenly distribute the heat into the heatsink fins.

Diecast Heatsink with Copper Heat Pipe for Encoder Card

Diecast Heatsink with Copper Heat Pipe for Encoder Card

We transitioned customer from an Extruded Aluminum Heatsink with secondary cuts and drills to a DieCast Heatsink design for reduced costs in higher volumes. New part has a copper heatpipe embedded in the base to improve thermal performance.