Abstract: It is an importance to optimize the position of high conductive material in a heat generating body with low thermal conductivity and high heat generation for reducing the internal temperature.A key problem is how to design the structures with high conductive material in the heat generating body for temperature control and heat collection.In this paper, a new method based on topology optimization is proposed to design the conductive pathways with embedded high conductive materials.Based upon SIMP approach, an artificial material model with thermal conductivity and heat generation rate is suggested and the relative densities of the high conductive material are taken as design variables. With the minimum heat potential capacity as the objective, a topology optimization model for designing high conductive inserts is formulated and the corresponding solving method is developed.Two topology optimization configurations of high conductive surfaces and high conductive inserts are given in the numerical examples to show be much different.The capability of heat dissipation for the high conductive inserts is much better than that of the high conductive surfaces.It indicates that it is necessary to consider the impact of the conductive pathways on the layout of heat source.Several numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and validity of the proposed optimization method.