A novel high performance, ultra thin heat sink for electronics

Abstract

We present an ultra thin heat sink for electronics, combining optimized impinging slot-jets, micro-channels and manifolds for efficient cooling. We first introduce a three-dimensional numerical model of the heat transfer structure, to investigate its hydrodynamic and thermal performance and its sensitivity to geometric parameters. In a second step we propose a three-dimensional hydrodynamic numerical model representing the complete system. Based on this model we design a novel manifold providing uniform fluid distribution. In order to save computational time a simpler semi-empirical model is proposed and validated. The semi-empirical model allows a robust optimization of the heat sink geometric parameters. The design is optimized for a 2×2cm2 chip and provides a total thermal resistance of 0.087cm2K/W for flow rates <1l/min and an overall pressure drop <0.1bar. This results in a maximum cooling capacity of 750W/cm2 for a temperature difference between fluid inlet and chip of 65K. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.