As an important component of the tokamak, divertor is mainly responsible for extracting heat and helium ash, and the targets of the divertor need to withstand high heat flux of 10 MW/m2 for steady-state operation. In this work, we proposed a new strategy, using microchannel cooling technology to remove high heat load on the targets of the divertor. The results demonstrated that the microchannel-based W/Cu flat-type mock-up survived successfully the thermal fatigue test of 1000 cycles at 10 MW/m2 with the cooling water of 26 L/min, 30 °C (inlet), 0.8 MPa (inlet), 15 s power on and 15 s dwell time; the maximum temperature on the heat loaded surface (W surface) of the mock-up was 493 °C, which is much lower than the recrystallization temperature of W (1200 °C). Moreover, no occurrence of macrocrack and ‘hot spot’ at the W surface, as well as no detachment of W/Cu tiles were observed during the thermal fatigue testing. These results indicate that microchannel cooling technology is an efficient method for removing the heat load of the divertor at a low flow rate. The present study offers a promising solution to replace the monoblock design for the EAST divertor.