Evaluation of Single Phase Flow in Microchannels for High Heat Flux Chip Cooling—Thermohydraulic Performance Enhancement and Fabrication Technology

The increased circuit density on today's computer chips is reaching the heat dissipation limits for air-cooling technology. The direct liquid cooling of chips is being considered as a viable alternative. This paper reviews liquid cooling with internal flow channels in terms of technological options and challenges. The possibilities presented herein indicate a four- to ten-fold increase in heat flux over the air-cooled systems. The roadmap for single-phase cooling technology is presented to identify research opportunities in meeting the cooling demands of future IC chips. The use of three-dimensional microchannels that incorporate either microstructures in the channel or grooves in the channel surfaces may lead to significant enhancements in single-phase cooling. A simplified and well-established fabrication process is described to fabricate both classes of three-dimensional microchannels. Proof-of-concept microchannels are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the fabrication process in fabricating complex microstructures within a microchannel.

[1]  James N. Walpole,et al.  Microchannel heat sinks for two-dimensional high-power-density diode laser arrays , 1989 .

[2]  R. Pease,et al.  High-performance heat sinking for VLSI , 1981, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[3]  Wataru Nakayama.  Enhanced Heat Transfer in Tight Space - A Frontier for Thermal Management of Microelectronic Equipment , 1999 .

[4]  Wen-Quan Tao,et al.  A unified analysis on enhancing single phase convective heat transfer with field synergy principle , 2002 .

[5]  Robin H. Liu,et al.  Passive mixing in a three-dimensional serpentine microchannel , 2000, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[6]  William J. Grande.  Fabrication Technologies for Advanced Heat Transfer Applications , 2003 .

[7]  R. Shah,et al.  Handbook of single-phase convective heat transfer , 1987 .

[8]  N. Nguyen,et al.  Fundamentals and Applications of Microfluidics , 2002 .

[9]  S. Sze.  Semiconductor Devices: Physics and Technology , 1985 .

[10]  Chad Bower,et al.  Heat Transfer in Water-Cooled Silicon Carbide Milli-Channel Heat Sinks for High Power Electronic Applications , 2003 .

[11]  Satish G. Kandlikar,et al.  Microchannels and Minichannels: History, Terminology, Classification and Current Research Needs , 2003 .

[12]  G. Whitesides,et al.  Controlling flows in microchannels with patterned surface charge and topography. , 2003, Accounts of chemical research.

[13]  A. Bergles.  ExHFT for fourth generation heat transfer technology , 2002 .

[14]  S. Kandlikar,et al.  Optimization of Microchannel Geometry for Direct Chip Cooling Using Single Phase Heat Transfer , 2004 .

[15]  Roger R. Schmidt,et al.  Challenges in Electronic Cooling: Opportunities for Enhanced Thermal Management Techniques — Microprocessor Liquid Cooled Minichannel Heat Sink , 2003 .

[16]  Armand Ajdari,et al.  Patterning flows using grooved surfaces. , 2002, Analytical chemistry.

[17]  Mark E. Steinke,et al.  Single-Phase Heat Transfer Enhancement Techniques in Microchannel and Minichannel Flows , 2004 .

[18]  Satish G. Kandlikar,et al.  Evolution of microchannel flow passages – Thermohydraulic performance and fabrication technology , 2002 .

[19]  Frank P. Incropera,et al.  Liquid Cooling of Electronic Devices by Single-Phase Convection , 1999 .

[20]  W. J. Grande,et al.  One‐step two‐level etching technique for monolithic integrated optics , 1987 .