– Copied from a customer email –
Just a quick question about the 13mm x 13mm x 10mm heat sink which comes in the box with GigaBlox Rugged. This is supplied as a loose piece. Is it optional? Can you provide guidance as to when it’s necessary to utilize this heat sink and which component it should be adhered to? By the size of it, it looks like it’s meant for the Microchip VSC7511.
It is mandatory to have some kind of heatsinking on the board, the chip needs a little help dissipating the 2-4W of power uses. That is the case even if you are in ambient conditions (25C) You don’t have to use our heatsink of course, and can use your own thermal solution as long as it matches thermal resistance of the heatsink supplied. As a rule of thumb, just make sure it’s a similar size or larger, aluminium.
Just to be clear, “the chip” you’re referring to is the Microchip VSC7511 right?
That’s the component the supplied heatsink (or other equivalent thermal solution) needs applied to?
Yep that’s correct.
Regarding thermal solution, we use a sticky thermal pad. It’s not great in terms of thermal resistance, but it’s “good enough” for this application. A permanent thermal epoxy would be better, but then the heatsink is not removable.