Characteristics of FIN+ heat pipes and heat pipe radiators

Heat pipe radiators are new products that utilize heat pipe technology to make significant improvements to many old-style radiators or heat exchange products and systems. Heat pipe radiators can be classified into two main categories: natural cooling and forced air cooling. The thermal resistance of forced air heat pipe radiators can be made smaller, and they are commonly used in high-power power supplies.
A heat pipe radiator consists of a sealed tube, a liquid-absorbing core, and a vapor channel. The liquid-absorbing core is wrapped around the wall of the sealed tube and is soaked with a volatile saturated liquid. This liquid can be distilled water, ammonia, methanol, or acetone, among others. Heat pipe radiators filled with liquids such as ammonia, methanol, or acetone still have good heat dissipation capabilities at low temperatures.
When a heat pipe radiator operates, its evaporation section absorbs the heat generated by the heat source (such as power semiconductor devices), causing the liquid in its liquid-absorbing core tube to boil and turn into vapor. The vapor carrying heat moves from the evaporation section of the heat pipe radiator to its cooling section, and when the vapor transfers heat to the cooling section, it condenses back into liquid. The condensed liquid then returns to the evaporation section through the capillary action of the liquid-absorbing core on the tube wall, continuously repeating this cycle to dissipate heat.
The heat pipe radiator is a highly efficient cooling device with unique heat dissipation characteristics. It has a high thermal conductivity, and the temperature distribution along the axis between its evaporation section and cooling section is uniform and basically equal.
The thermal resistance of a radiator is determined by the thermal conductivity of the material and the effective area within its volume. Solid aluminum or copper radiators do not significantly reduce thermal resistance when their volume reaches 0.006m³, even if their volume and area are increased further. For dual-sided cooling discrete semiconductor devices, the thermal resistance of all-copper or all-aluminum air-cooled radiators can only reach 0.04℃/W. In contrast, heat pipe radiators can achieve 0.01℃/W. Under natural convection cooling conditions, the performance of heat pipe radiators can be improved by more than ten times compared to solid radiators.