Heat sink and housing for an inverter with such a heat sink

The invention relates to a heat sink (1) for cooling electronic power components arranged in a housing. The heat sink (1) includes a cooling element (3) having cooling fins (16, 17) arranged on a base surface (14), and a fan (2) for intake of ambient air and for delivering the ambient air via the cooling fins (16, 17) of the cooling element (3), the cooling element (3) having a recess (13), in which the fan (2) is arranged spaced apart from the base surface (14). The invention further relates to an inverter housing (24) including the heat sink. In order to improve the cooling effect while having an optimum space, the fan (2) includes a housing ring (4) on the side facing away from the base surface (14) of the cooling element (3), an intermediate space (15) being formed between the bottom edge of the housing ring (4) and the base surface (14) of the cooling element (3). The fan (2) is an axial fan, so that the ambient air taken in impinges upon the base surface (14) of the cooling element (3), is deflected by essentially 90 degrees and guided through the intermediate space (15) laterally between the cooling fins (16, 17) to the outside.