S3-P10: Embedded microfluidic cooling of high heat flux electronic components

In this paper, an embedded cooling approach is introduced for thermal management of High Power Amplifier (BPA) MMICs utilizing a microfluidic manifold bonded to the bottom of the HPA. The approach is applicable to current and future HPA technologies such as, for example, GaN/SiC and GaN/Diamond. The microfluidic contains a distributed network of micron-scale impingement jets and flow channels which are produced using a very flexible 3-Dimensional additive, photolithographic process. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been used to investigate the effect of manifold design parameters, such as jet shape, size and jet pattern on thermal performance and pressure drop. The approach is shown to be capable of simultaneously managing HEMT-level heat fluxes of greater than 40 kW/cm2 and die-level heat fluxes of 1 kW/cm2 very efficiently. Potential thermal enhancement afforded by die back-side etching are also demonstrated