Heat Sink Design Optimization Using the Thermal Bottleneck Concept

Robin Bornoff, Byron Blackmore & John Parry

Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division
81 Bridge Road, Hampton Court, Surrey UK
robin_bornoff@mentor.com
Abstract
Calculation and display of a thermal bottleneck scalar field
as an integrated part of a CFD simulation enables a
practitioner to interact with and understand the physical
mechanisms by which heat is removed from an electronics
system. By applying the characteristics of this thermal
bottleneck scalar to heat sink design aspects, one can identify
near optimal solutions with a minimal number of simulations.
This work will detail the principles of using thermal
bottleneck information to optimize fin thickness distribution
and copper slug design and compare the results to that
obtained by more traditional Design of Experiments and
numerical optimization techniques.

2. BottleNeck and ShortCut Numbers and Their

Characteristics
2.1. BottleNeck Number (BN)
The dimensionalized BN number is the dot product of the
heat flux and temperature gradient vectors (Fig. 1).

Keywords
Thermal, Bottleneck
Nomenclature
BN BottleNeck Number
Dh hydraulic diameter = 2 x fin gap
DoE Design of (Numerical) Experiment
Lhy Hydrodynamic Entrance Length
Re Reynolds Number
RSM Response Surface Modeling
SC ShortCut Number
SO Sequential Optimization

Figure 1: Misaligned Heat Flux and Temperature Gradient

vectors
In vector notation: BN = Heat Flux Temperature
Gradient. In scalar notation: BN = |Heat Flux x Temperature
Gradient x cos() |.
If the angle between the two vectors is zero, i.e. the heat
flux is aligned with the temperature gradient as it would be for
conductive heat flow in a homogenous thermally isotropic
material, then BN is the product of the magnitudes of the
vectors, since cos(0) =1 .
Large values of this BN scalar, computed as a part of the
thermal simulation, pinpoint areas of high heat flow
experiencing a large local thermal resistance (characterized by
a large, aligned temperature gradient), and thus identify the
thermal bottlenecks in a design. Normalizing this scalar by the
maximum value in a model will provide an indication of the
relative levels of thermal bottleneck in a single simulation
model.

1. Introduction
Electronics thermal management involves the design of an
electronics system to facilitate the effective removal of heat
from the active surface of an integrated circuit (the heat
source) out to a colder ambient surrounding. As the heat
travels from the source it passes through various objects and
length scales; from the die through the package to the board,
into a chassis and out to an operating environment.
How easily the heat passes from the source(s) to the
ambient will determine the temperature rise at the source and
all points in-between. The often complex 3D heat flow paths
carry proportions of the heat with varying degrees of ease.
Those paths that carry a lot of heat and which offer large
resistances to that heat flow are considered thermal
bottlenecks. Identifying and relieving these bottlenecks
through a redesign will allow the heat to pass to the ambient
more easily, thus reducing temperature rises along the heat
flow path, all the way back to the heat source.
The addition of new heat flow paths that allow the heat to
bypass these bottlenecks and pass directly to colder areas and
on to the ambient more easily will also result in a decrease in
temperature rises. Identification and implementation of such
thermal shortcut opportunities also allow targeted design
changes to be made with maximum effect.
978-1-61284-736-8/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

2.2. ShortCut Number (SC)

The dimensionalized SC number is also calculated from
the heat flux and temperature gradient vector fields. The SC
scalar value at any point is calculated as the magnitude of the
cross product of the two vector quantities. In vector notation:
SC = Heat Flux x Temperature Gradient. In scalar notation:
SC = | Heat Flux x Temperature Gradient x sin() |.
If the temperature gradient is orthogonal to the heat flux,
then SC is simply the product of the vector magnitudes, since
sin(90) =1.
Large values of the SC field pinpoint areas where large
heat flux vectors are misaligned with large temperature
gradient vectors (i.e., the heat is not moving directly toward a
76

27th IEEE SEMI-THERM Symposium

significantly cooler area), and thus identify locations where

the benefit in establishing a new heat transfer path to shortcut
the heat to colder areas of the design is highest. Normalizing
this scalar by the maximum value in a model will provide an
indication of the relative levels of shortcut opportunities in a
single simulation model.
3. Literature Review
Examples of the application of the BN and SC Numbers to
thermal management applications have been previously
published [1, 2]. In [1], BN and SC are introduced, and
distributions of both are shown for a single TO 263 device on
a board to illustrate where the optimal locations in the
package to implement thermal design changes are to be found.
In [2], BN and SC distributions are used to derive a sequence
of thermal design changes for a board in a forced convection
situation. BN distributions suggested the shape of the optimal
copper pad for two overheating packages, while SC
distributions suggested the use of a heat sink and the optimal
locations for an array of thermal vias.
4. Optimization vs. Insight for Heat Sink Design
The BN and SC Numbers can be used individually, or
together with any electronics thermal design. In this paper we
will focus on the application of the BN Number to heat sink
design. Heat sink design is a generic challenge that now forms
part of the thermal design of many electronics systems, from
consumer electronics to military avionics. The traditional
approach to heat sink design optimization is automated
parametric design optimization, using numerical Design-ofExperiment (DoE) techniques coupled with Response Surface
Modeling (RSM) or Sequential Optimization (SO) in
conjunction with CFD [3]. While these approaches have been
shown to be very effective, they can also consume prohibitive
amounts of engineering time and computing resource. The
basic methodology is as follows. A base model is defined in
the analysis software following standard modeling practices
for the tool in use. Then, the parameters to be varied as part
of the DoE have to be selected and their ranges defined. Next
a sufficiently large set of design points needs to be generated
within the design space, usually requiring a minimum of 5-10
design points per design parameter. Each of these designs then
has to be solved to a converged state. Once all the designs
have been solved a Response Surface can be created by fitting
the data points for a given objective (or cost) function,
comprised of quantities that should be optimized, such as
weight and temperature rise. The minimum value of the
Response Surface can then be found within the design space,
and this design created and solved to check the performance
of the design. An alternative to using RSM is use SO, which
entails starting from the best design found from the DoE set of
simulations, and stepping sequentially towards the optimum
using analysis of previously solved models to guide the step
size and direction within the design space.
In contrast to the traditional approach, using the BN
Number field and the physical insights it offers allows
designers to create near-optimal design configurations directly
from a single simulation.
The following sections will discuss the implementation of
both techniques for two selected subsets of heat sink design,
and draw conclusions about the results and calculation time.
Bornoff et al, Heat Sink Design Optimization Using the

5. Heat Sink Fin Thickness Optimization

The first heat sink design task considered is the
optimization of individual fin thicknesses for an extruded
plate fin heat sink while minimizing the heatsink mass but
maximizing thermal performance. The test case for this
design task is described in Table 1 and Figure 2. This is a
simplified case which consists of a deliberately oversized heat
sink with a small heat source at the center of a thick base. We
have also fixed the device velocity, i.e. the velocity of the
flow entering the finned region constant and uniform across
the fin gap. Note that the deliberate over sizing of this heat
sink was necessary to effectively isolate the effect of the fin
thickness on heat sink performance. Otherwise, the
conclusions of the study would be affected by heat spreading
in the base and varying channel flow rates.
5.1. Case Description
Due to symmetry, only half of the width of the heat sink
was modeled. The data shown in Table 1 is for the full heat
sink.
Aluminum, k=137 Wm-1K-1
15 mm
400 mm
400 mm
0.5mm* 6.0 mm
360 mm
28
1 ms-1
5 x 5 mm
100 W
Total Mass (g) + 2xThermal
Resistance (KW-1)
Table 1: Heat Sink and Optimization Parameters (*=Base
Case)
Material
Base Thickness
Base Length
Base Width
Fin Thickness
Fin Height
Number of Fins
Device Air Speed
Heat Source Size
Heat Source
Cost Function

Figure 2: Heat Sink Model Configuration. Heat Source is

Marked in Red
27th IEEE SEMI-THERM Symposium

The length of the heat sink fins has been chosen to ensure
that the thermal boundary layers formed on the fins do not
touch before the flow has reached the end of the heat sink
(again, to allow study of fin thickness effects in isolation).
Using the following equation for a flat duct [4]:

The hydrodynamic entrance length is 603mm for the

narrowest fin channel (as derived from the maximum fin
thickness in Table 1).
5.2. DoE Description
To demonstrate the power of the BN approach we first
adopt a classical DoE approach, where the thickness of every
fin in the heat sink is independently allowed to vary within
its design limits, followed by SO from the best design. A
DoE of 300 designs (representing approximately 21 designs
per design parameter) was constructed so that the fin
thickness of each of the 14 fins was varied independently over
the range shown in Table 1. The cost function includes a
contribution from both the heat sink mass and the base-toambient thermal resistance. The cost function had an observed
range of 150.8 to 160.9 over the 300 DoE simulations. The
cost function for the optimum design arrived at by SO was
145.4. The results of the DoE are plotted in Figure 3 as well
as a depiction of the optimal heat sink fin thickness
distribution. The four central fins in this optimal design were
at the maximum fin thickness of 6 mm. Moving outwards
from these central fins, the next two fin thicknesses drop
down to ~1mm and ~0.75 mm and all remaining fins were
determined to be optimal with the minimum thickness of 0.5
mm.

path in question. With the design change in place, the new

model is then solved to identify the region of highest BN for
the new design. This process is repeated, until a thermally
satisfactory design is arrived at. If this process is continued
until its logical conclusion the result is a uniform BN field,
characterized by all possible heat flow paths being equally
conductive. We therefore hypothesize that the optimal design
will have the same BN value for each fin and this hypothesis
is used as the basis for manual optimization of the heat sink
design.
The BN field for the base case was plotted and the BN
maximum value for each fin, which occurs at the root of each
fin, was noted. The design was then modified as follows.
The thickness of each fin was scaled between the
minimum value of 0.5 mm and the maximum value of 6 mm
linearly with BN number. The fin with the smallest BN
number retained a thickness of 0.5 mm, and the fin with the
largest BN number was set to a width of 6 mm. The resulting
design is shown in Figure 4. The optimal heat sink design
from the DoE and SO approach is overlaid for comparison.

Figure 4: Thickness Distribution Based on Maximum BN

number

Figure 3: DoE and SO Results for Cost Function. Initial

and Optimized Heat Sink Geometry are shown.
5.3. BN-based Optimization
For a general thermal design application, use of the BN
Number for design optimization proceeds as follows. The
region of highest BN is found and the design is changed to
reduce the values. This usually involves decreasing the local
thermal resistance in the vicinity of the highest BN by either
increasing the thermal conductivity of the material, or by
increasing the local cross-sectional area of the high BN flow
Bornoff et al, Heat Sink Design Optimization Using the

Solving this new BN-derived design resulted in a cost

function of 145.5, within 0.1% of the results achieved through
the use of DoE and SO. Further, the shape of the fin thickness
distribution is similar for both techniques, with the thickest
fins located centrally, and a sharp drop off to the minimum
allowable thickness as we move away from the center.
With the BN approach we are not directly attempting to
limit the mass of the heat sink. However, the BN approach
increases the fin width from its minimum value only where it
is needed to improve the thermal performance, thus having a
very similar effect to including the heat sink mass in the cost
function for the SO calculations.
6. Introducing a Slug in the Heat Sink Base
As a further demonstration of the use of the BN number
we investigated the BN field in the heat sink base around the
heat source in the base case reported above, but with the base
thickness increased to 35 mm to allow for a larger variation of
BN within the base (see Figure 5). Again, this step was taken
to allow the investigation to isolate, as much as possible, one

27th IEEE SEMI-THERM Symposium

aspect of the heat sink design, namely the heat spreading in

the base near the heat source.

Figure 5: BN Distribution in the Heat Sink Base

The BN field goes from a maximum of 1 just above the
heat source and decreases as we move away from the center.
In this case, as the base is relatively thick, the BN isosurfaces
(for larger values of BN) are approximately hemispherical a
short distance from the heat source as the heat flux lines are
not significantly influenced by the rest of the heat sink
geometry until we move closer to the fins. To address the
thermal bottlenecks indicated by this BN distribution, and
hence improve the thermal design, we can introduce a slug of
higher conductivity material where the largest BN values are
observed. It follows then, that the most optimal shape for a
slug of a given volume will closely resemble a BN isosurface,
as the integral of BN over the slugs volume will be
maximized.
To investigate this, copper inserts were designed using the
BN distribution in Figure 5 to guide the insert geometry
creation.
Eight BN cutoff values were selected, and
hemispheres of copper (in some cases, truncated hemispheres
were required, as the BN isosurface extended upwards far
enough to extend past the top of the heat sink base) were
created to approximate the isosurface corresponding to that
cutoff value. Each copper slug was placed in the heat sink
base immediately above the heat source in turn. The model
for each of these inserts was solved and the results are
presented in Figure 6.

In Figure 6, All Aluminum records the temperature rise

when the entire heat sink is all aluminum (no copper insert).
All Copper shows the temperature rise when the heat sink is
made entirely of copper. Figure 6 clearly shows that as the
heat slug is made bigger (the smaller BN Number Cutoffs),
the incremental improvement reduces. This is aligned with
expectations, as areas of the heat sink base experiencing low
levels of BN are less important to address with a design
change than high BN level areas. The corollary to this
observation is that the smaller copper inserts represent the
most efficient use of copper, as the gain in thermal
performance per unit volume of copper is highest for the
largest set of BN cutoff values.
The BN field gives a clear indication of where the thermal
bottlenecks are in the design and therefore where to include a
bottleneck relieving insert. Based on Figure 6, the thermal
designer can select a BN cutoff as the best balance between
cost, performance, and manufacturability, recognizing that
diminishing returns is a concern for smaller BN cutoff values.
To verify the assumption that the BN isosurface shape
should guide the design of the copper insert shape, we
compared the performance of the hemispherical insert (for a
selected BN cutoff value of 7.5x10-5, the second point from
the left in Figure 6, with a diameter of 40.2 mm) with
cuboidal inserts having the same volume of copper, but
different shapes. These shapes ranged from covering the
entire bottom surface of the heat sink base to spanning the
entire thickness of the base, with thicknesses or footprints
chosen to maintain an equivalent volume of copper. The
resulting temperature rises for the nine tested insert shapes are
shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Effect of Conserved Volume Copper Slug

Dimensions on Temperature Rise

Figure 6: Effect of BN Cutoff value on Temperature Rise.

Bornoff et al, Heat Sink Design Optimization Using the

The optimum shape found for the cuboidal insert was a

block that had dimensions of 32.4 x 32.4 x 16.2 mm high.
This shape is one half of a cube, and when comparing this to
the 40.2 mm hemispherical insert evaluated earlier, represents
an identical bounding box aspect ratio (i.e., the height of the
insert is the dimensions of the bounding box footprint).
This matches our supposition that the BN isosurface chosen as
the cutoff defines the shape of the region within which the
thermal conductivity should be increased. In this case the
27th IEEE SEMI-THERM Symposium

temperature rise for the hemisphere and the optimum equivolume cuboidal shape are within 0.2%. This suggests that
approximating the BN isosurface for the selected cutoff value
with an equivalent volume, equivalent bounding box aspect
ratio representation produces satisfactory results.
7. Conclusions
Identification and visualization of the BN scalar field
offers insight into the physical mechanisms of how heat
moves from source to ambient. This work has demonstrated
how the BN number can be applied to two aspects of heat sink
design.
Deriving optimal heat sink fin thickness via
inspection of the BN distribution in each fin was
demonstrated to produce similar results to that of a best
practice DoE and SO simulation approach, but using a small
fraction of the computing resources. The optimal location and
geometry for a copper insert of a fixed volume was found to
be governed by the shape of a BN isosurface at an assumed
cutoff value.
Acknowledgments
CFD simulations and BN and SC post-processing were
carried out with Mentor Graphics FloTHERM V9.1 software.
References
1. John Parry, Robin Bornoff, Byron Blackmore, Thermal
BottleNecks and ShortCut opportunities; innovations in
electronics thermal design simulation Electronics
Cooling Magazine, Vol. 16, No. 3, Fall 2010, pp. 24-25.
2. Byron Blackmore, John Parry and Robin Bornoff, New
3D thermal quantities help designers address thermal
problems as they arise Cover Story in Printed Circuit
Board Design & Fabrication Magazine, Vol. 29, No. 11,
pp. 30-32
3. J. Parry, Robin Bornoff, P. Stehouwer, Lonneke Driessen
and Erwin Stinstra, Simulation-Based Design
Optimisation Methodologies Applied to CFD,
Proceedings of 19th SEMI-THERM Symposium, San Jose
CA, March 2003, pp. 8-13
4. Kaka, Sadik, Ramesh K. Shah & Win Aung, Handbook
of Single-Phase Convective Heat Transfer, John Wiley &
Sons (New York 1987) Ch. 3 pp. 35

Bornoff et al, Heat Sink Design Optimization Using the

27th IEEE SEMI-THERM Symposium