5W driver amplifer heat sink details

[spriya]

Hi all, 

Can somebody explain me in detail regarding the heat sink placement over the 5W driver amplifier board? Also, can you please provide part number for the heatsink that can be used for the driver amp board? Please share any pics of the amplifer along with the heat sink placed for my clear understanding.  

Thanks in Advance!

Regards

Priya

[jcve...@gmail.com]

Hi Priya,

The choice of heatsink depends on many factors that are external to the circuit design. Duty cycle, ambient temperature, VDD, SWR to name a few. With that in mind the board was designed to handle a wide range of cooling possibilities. The board is drilled to accept a standard 1/8 brick heat sink (google "1/8 brick heat sink"). They come with different fin sizes and orientation for convection and forced air. You should be able to find a 1/8 brick HS for most light-medium duty applications. Here is photo of a Wakefield 1/8 brick HS mounted on the driver board:

In cases where 100% duty cycle, high ambient temperature or badly matched loads are present it is also possible to affix and arbitrarily large heatsink to provide extra cooling. Here is a picture of the board mounted to a much larger heatsink:

  Of course it is possible to add a copper heat spreader and an even larger heatsink but it is easy to reach a point of diminishing returns.

73,

Jim WA2EUJ