Heatsink grease

[Andrew W. Macfadyen]

Actually what you are reffering to is a heat sink grease it is really just
provide a heat path where the heatsink dosen't make true contact with the
package as all flat surfaces aren't truly flat. Put too much on and it will
actually reduce the   heat flow.
Thermal bonding compounds also exist which are I think can be either epoxy or
Iso-cyanate based these both  improve the heat transfer and stick the heat sink
down . --- some are very expensive  particularly the one made by Loctite and
this may be the reason they are not in wide spread use. In the UK Maplin are now
carrying a cheaper line of heat sink adhesive.

TWong29770 at aol.com wrote:

> I think that all of this discussion is referring to the heat conducting
> material that is applied between the device and the heatsink itself.  It's
> commonly white in color and many electronic supply houses such as Newark
> Electronics sells it.  It just makes the heat path to the sink a little more
> efficient.
>
> If it wasn't necessary then why is it used in almost every power transistor
> application. Or for that matter remove your HEI module from your GM
> distributor and see what's under that!
>
> Tom Wong