A Review of the EMI Effect on Natural Convection Heatsinks

Abstract

The active/passive heatsinks have recently garnered much attention due to their benefit to keep the temperature of the electronic device and PCB/ICs in a certain range. They are expected both to perform a maximum cooling thermally and to have a minimum of the radiation in electromagnetic terms since it causes electromagnetic interference (EMI) in devices around. In this paper, many studies discussing the EMI performance of natural convection heatsinks in the literature are investigated. Especially in devices operating at high frequencies, these structures behave like semi-antennas if their electrical dimensions are comparable to λ-λ/20 wavelengths. Accordingly, they act as both a monopole and a patch antenna. To eliminate the EMI effect from a heatsink, the grounding, shielding, and filtering techniques are studied. In the literature, the grounding methods are studied up to 2 GHz and it is determined that it provides improvement up to 12 dB. For 1–40 GHz, it is possible to have up to 20 dB improvements in EMI by using absorbers and shielding methods. Finally, the effects of heatsink geometry, design parameters, fin-types, and excitation points on RE are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• EMC
• EMI effect
• Fin-types
• Heatsink
• Radiated emission

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abdullah Genc

Abdullah Genc received his BSc degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Istanbul University in 2008, MSc degree in mechanical engineering from Rice University, in Houston, USA, in 2011 and PhD degree in electronics and communication engineering from Süleyman Demirel University in Isparta, in 2017. He has been working as an Asst Prof in the Department of Mechatronic Engineering in Isparta University of Applied Sciences, Turkey. His fields of interest include antennas and propagation, electromagnetic fields and waves and microwave circuit design.

Habib Dogan

Habib Dogan received his BSc and MSc degrees in electronics engineering from the Erciyes University in Kayseri, Turkey in 1994 and 2000, respectively, and PhD degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Süleyman Demirel University in Isparta, Turkey in 2018. He has worked as an instructor in Harran University, Turkey between 1995 and 2011. He has been working as an electronic engineer in Ministry of Environment and Urbanization in Isparta. His current research interests are among of Electromagnetic compatibility, electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic propagation, and RFID applications. Email: [email protected]

Ibrahim Bahadır Basyigit

İbrahim Bahadir Basyigit, received his BSc degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Sakarya University in 2005, MSc degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Akdeniz University, in Antalya, Turkey in 2011 and PhD degree in electronics and communication engineering from Süleyman Demirel University in Isparta, Turkey in 2016. He has been working as an Asst. prof in Department of electrical and electronics engineering in Isparta University of Applied Sciences. His current research interests are among of electromagnetic compatibility, electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic propagation, and cellular networks. Email: [email protected]

Selcuk Helhel

Selcuk Helhel received his BSc (EE) from Hacettepe University, Turkey (1993), MSc (EE) from Gebze Institute of Technology,Turkey (1997) and PhD (EE) from Sakarya University (2005). He spent 5 years studying on EMC and MIL-STD 461-462 standards, and radio telescope design projects between 1993 and 1998 at TUBITAK – MAM (UEKAE). He has been a member of Akdeniz University (Turkey) as a professor at Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department. He has been a director of Industrial and Medical Application Microwave Research Center (EMUMAM) granted by State Planning Organization, since 2008. His research interests are microwave propagation, EMC, EMI, WiMAX and WiMAX based video transmission systems, and optical polarimetry and communications. Email: [email protected]