A MEMS Active Cooling Substrate for Microelectronics Thermal Management

Thermal management of electronic systems is of increasing concern as densities and power consumption increase. Typical thermal management solutions are modular in nature; e.g., a heat sink and/or fan area added to a heat-producing part. In this work, an integrated solution, the active cooling substrate (ACS) is proposed, in which the cooling functionality is included in the printed wiring board alongside the electrical wiring. The mechanism for cooling is the use of synthetic jets embedded in the substrate. The utility of the active cooling substrate is demonstrated through quantitative measurements of thermal performance of instrumented platinum heater testbeds. Thermal management is enhanced through the additional heat convection mode introduced by the embedded synthetic jets in the active cooling substrate.