Power Dissipation is an enemy to embedded designers. Power Dissipation if not handled properly could fail a working design within no time. Power dissipation causes heat to be generated within an IC and considering the form factor of the boards and densities of the ICs there is no scope for this heat to get distributed. While the chips doesn't operate continuously at maximum power at most times, it is the operating temperatures that adds up to the heat dissipation challenges. One of the options for this heat to dissipate is to use a heat sink. Heat sink provides a path for the heat to escape out of the ICs and hence the embedded boards. Mounting this heat sink is what designers need to bother. Heat sink mounted on the top of the IC cannot pull heat directly. A medium need to be used between IC top and Heat sink. This is an electrically insulating medium but thermally conducting. Such materials used for interfacing the ICs to heat sinks are called Thermal Interface Materials.
Thermal Interface materials can be bonding or non-bonding. Thermal paste which is a movable compound and is bonding type. Thermal pad is non-bonding type. While these provide an interface, they add additional thickness for the heat to escape but cannot be avoided.
Thermal Calculation for an embedded IC is explained in the below video:
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