Thermal pads are a pre-formed square or rectangle commonly found on the underside of heatsinks to aid the conduction of heat away from the component being cooled (such as a CPU or another chip) and into the heatsink. Thermal pads and thermal compound are used to fill air gaps caused by imperfectly flat or smooth surfaces which should be in thermal contact. Thermal pads are relatively firm at room temperature, but become soft and able to fill gaps at higher temperatures. Check out our complete selection of thermal pads in a variety of sizes and thicknesses!