Heatsinks: how and when to use them

Anyone who has ever designed or built a power supply or power amplifier has experienced the problem of heat dissipation. The heat produced in such equipment can be quite substantial Heatsinks are normally used to improve the thermal capacity of power semiconductors and therefore to enable them to dissipate the heat generated when they are in operation. With some background information, it is not too difficult to calculate the size of heatsink required for a particular application.