Investigation on the unconstrained microfluidic heat sink with high anti-blockage capacity for multiple hotspots system

Abstract

Microfluidic heat sinks are regarded as an efficient cooling solution in microelectronic systems. However, as the hydraulic diameter of the microfluidic heat sinks shrinks, the blockage problem may occur due to the particles caused by cooling components? abrasion, which limits the application in long-term operation. This paper proposes an unconstrained microfluidic heat sink (UCMFHS) with high anti-blockage capacity for multiple hotspot systems, which aims to solve the blockage problem. The position and shape of the micro pin fins in UCMFHS are optimized by the computational fluid dynamics(CFD) model. According to the test requirements of anti-blockage capacity and cooling performance, the test platform is built, which adopts the thermal test chips (TTCs) as heat source array. The results show that when the coolant particle concentration is 0.5%, the pressure drop variation is less than 0.3 kPa in UCMFHS, which is 99.43% lower than the control sample. The average temperature and temperature non-uniformity coefficient of 16 hotspots under the condition of 1200 W/cm2and 125 mL/min are 141.1 ?and 0.049, respectively. Therefore, the UCMFHS has both anti-blockage capacity and cooling capacity and is considered to have a high application prospect in long-term multi-hotspot cooling.