Electronic apparatus with extremely high operating performance have been constantly developed by the high-tech industrial field. With the enhanced operating performance and speed, heat-producing elements inside the electronic apparatus produce more heat during the operation thereof. Therefore, it has become an important issue to develop modular heat sink for mounting to different heat-producing sources for lowering the temperature thereof. Similarly, with the increased speed in accessing data, a memory in the electronic apparatus consumes more electric current than before and accordingly, produces more heat during the operation thereof. When the heat produced by the computing unit in the electronic apparatus increases without being properly dissipated to lower the temperature of the computing unit, the electronic apparatus is subjected to down or low running efficiency. In a worse condition, the computing unit might become damaged.
A conventional heat sink assembly for the memory of a computing unit includes a heat dissipating unit, which may include an integrally formed U-shaped heat radiating member made of a heat conducting material or two separated symmetrical heat radiating members, so that a heat-producing memory may be enclosed in or clamped between the heat radiating members; and a holding fixture, which includes at least one holding element for holding the two heat radiating members and the memory together.
While it provides good heat dissipating effect to the memory, the conventional heat sink assembly is not easy to install and it is uneasy to control the clamping force provided by the holding fixture. In the event the provided clamping force is too small, it is possible the heat dissipating unit could not be firmly held to the memory. On the other hand, when the provided clamping force is too large, it is possible to damage the IC chip or circuit board on the memory. The holding fixture is also subjected to elastic fatigue to finally lose its elasticity and clamping ability when it has been repeatedly mounted to and dismounted from the memory over a period of time.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved heat sink mechanism to overcome the problems in the prior art.