High thermal capability positive heat sink for rectifier assembly

Abstract

A heat sink structure is provided for a rectifier assembly of an air-cooled generator. The heat sink structure comprises a substantially annular base that defines a plane. The base has a plurality of cooling fins extending from it and which project from the plane. The base further has a plurality of cooling slots, which comprise cutouts of the fins. Additionally, the base has diode mounts, each of which is adapted to retain a respective diode in a thermally conductive manner, whereby heat from each respective diode is transferred to the base and to the cooling fins. Also provided is a method for manufacturing a heat sink structure. The method comprises the steps of configuring a sheet of thermally conductive material to include a substantially annular base, perforating the base to form contiguous fin projections, and bending the fin projections out of the base whereby fin shaped slots remain.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.