Liquid metal cooling in thermal management of computer chips

With the rapid improvement of computer performance, tremendous heat generation in the chip becomes a major serious concern for thermal management. Meanwhile, CPU chips are becoming smaller and smaller with almost no room for the heat to escape. The total power-dissipation levels now reside on the order of 100 W with a peak power density of 400–500 W/cm2, and are still steadily climbing. As a result, it is extremely hard to attain higher performance and reliability. Because the conventional conduction and forcedair convection techniques are becoming incapable in providing adequate cooling for sophisticated electronic systems, new solutions such as liquid cooling, thermoelectric cooling, heat pipes, vapor chambers, etc. are being studied. Recently, it was realized that using a liquid metal or its alloys with a low melting point as coolant could significantly lower the chip temperature. This new generation heat transfer enhancement method raised many important fundamentals and practical issues to be solved. To accommodate to the coming endeavor in this area, this paper is dedicated to presenting an overall review on chip cooling using liquid metals or their alloys as coolant. Much more attention will be paid to the thermal properties of liquid metals with low melting points or their alloys and their potential applications in the chip cooling. Meanwhile, principles of several typical pumping methods such as mechanical, electromagnetic or peristaltic pumps will be illustrated. Some new advancement in making a liquid metal cooling device will be discussed. The liquid metal cooling is expected to open a new world for computer chip cooling because of its evident merits over traditional coolant.

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