TO-220 Heat Sink 6 Devices in Row

[adamey]

I've been searching the online catalogs for heat sinks for TO-220 MOSFETS and can't find what I want. Before I get some aluminum and make my own, I thought I'd ask here.

I'd like a sink where I can attach 6 To-220 devices side-by-side in a small area (about 3.5" long) that could be mounted to a PCB. I could use those small bolt on sinks, but would like something a little more "elegant".

I thought some sort of an extrusion would work as I could cut it to length.

 

[Boncuk]

Depending on the total power to be dissipated a heat sink for six TO-220 packages must be considerably large.

A good way is a combination of heatsink and fan.

Refer to the attachment for details.

Boncuk

 

[Ubergeek63]

**broken link removed**
perfect thing... unfortunately it normally only comes in 8 foot lengths

 

[crutschow]

How much power will the transistors be dissipating?

 

[mneary]

Are the Drain terminals all connected together? If not, then they need to be insulated from a shared heat sink.

 

[bychon]

I have a six position heat sink that I scavenged out of a retail product. "Elegant" is not a description of that piece. Forget elegant. Just start drilling some 1/8th aluminum. If that isn't enough, you can always stick some one transistor radiators to the first strip of aluminum.

 

[adamey]

Thanks, I found the perfect sink after seing Ubergeek63's link to extrusions at Aavid and checking out similar products.

**broken link removed**

Power dissipation isn't much of a problem. Individual devices might have a load of 20-30W, but the duty cycle is very low, so actual long term dissipation would be 1-2W. As well, although there are 6 devices, they are never on at the same time.

I didn't want to use those small clip-ons as I didn't want a device to quickly rise in temp when under load only to have a period of time to cool off. I figured a single large sink would keep temp fluctuations in check.

 

[Ubergeek63]

Thanks, I found the perfect sink after seing Ubergeek63's link to extrusions at Aavid and checking out similar products.

**broken link removed**

Power dissipation isn't much of a problem. Individual devices might have a load of 20-30W, but the duty cycle is very low, so actual long term dissipation would be 1-2W. As well, although there are 6 devices, they are never on at the same time.

I didn't want to use those small clip-ons as I didn't want a device to quickly rise in temp when under load only to have a period of time to cool off. I figured a single large sink would keep temp fluctuations in check.

glad to help... we use the max clips in production here on a custom extrusion. it runs about $5/lb cut and drilled in volume