There is a need in the art for a heat exchanger design having a flexible core providing contour matching capabilities, which compensates for manufacturing tolerance and distortion buildups, and which accordingly furnishes a relatively uniform thermal contact conductance between the core and external heat sources under essentially all operating conditions. The core of the heat exchanger comprises a top plate and a bottom plate, each having alternate rows of pins attached. Each of the pins fits into corresponding tight-fitting recesses in the opposite plate
