A Review of Cooling in Microchannels

Advancements in electronic performance result in a decrease in device size and increase in power density. Because of these advancements, current cooling mechanisms for electronic devices are beginning to be ineffective. Within the localized hot spots, the materials of the components are reaching temperature values that can lead to improper functioning of the device. Many techniques have been successful in the past, such as heat sinks, cavities or grooves, micro pin-fins, etc., but still do not provide adequate cooling necessary to maintain temperature values low enough for the electronic components to operate. Microchannels, with their large heat transfer surface to volume ratio, cooled with either gas or liquid coolant, have shown some potential. By modifying the walls of the microchannel with fins, pins, or grooves, the cooling performance can be improved. A possible fin material used to increase the surface area of a microchannel is carbon nanotubes, which possess excellent thermal and mechanical properties. Numerical and computational methods needed to analyze flow at the micro- and nano-scale are also introduced. The numerical methods such as lattice Boltzmann, molecular dynamics, and computational fluid dynamics may lessen the cost and time that often accompany experimentation.