Review of jet impingement cooling of electronic devices: Emerging role of surface engineering

The rising requirements of computing capability with an ever-declining packaging volume has triggered a global surge in the thermal management industry of electronic devices over the past several years. It is of utmost importance to maintain the electronic chip temperature below a specified limit, as overheating may lead to performance degradation, chip failure, and even operational hazards in extreme situations. Numerous attempts to meet the high cooling requirements of the heat-dissipating chips have been made using various devices and techniques, like heat pipes, pool boiling, microchannel heat sinks, spray cooling, jet impingement (JI), etc. Among these, the JI technique has several advantages in the efficient removal of heat in comparison to other approaches. Certain parameters play significant roles in heat removal by jet impingement. For example, coolant (working liquid) properties, flow arrangement (single-phase/multi-phase, laminar/turbulent flow), and target surface thermal and chemical properties are important actors. For both direct and indirect types of JI cooling, the surface properties of the target substrate are among the most essential and controllable features for enhancing heat removal. This paper emphasizes the importance of wettability engineering of the target substrate and presents a critical and comprehensive review of several possible surface engineering techniques that have been adopted by researchers to enhance heat transfer rates from electronic devices via JI cooling. A futuristic outlook on why and how the JI technology can be used in industry is also presented. Challenges abound and in view of this realization, intense R&D efforts are required in this arena.