Design, Modeling, and Optimization for Highly Efficient Ionic Wind-Based Cooling Microfabricated Devices

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to re-design, model and optimize a single microfabricated ionic wind pump device [1]. The device could then be employed in a three-dimensional array for use in larger-scale microchip cooling and enhanced thermal spreading applications. The innovative microfabricated air-cooling technology employs an electrohydrodynamic corona discharge (i.e. ionic wind pump) for efficient heat removal from electronic components. Our single ionic wind pump element consists of two parallel collecting electrodes between which a single emitting tip is positioned. The collector electrodes are patterned with a grid structure, which enhances the overall heat transfer coefficient and facilitates a batch and IC compatible process. Various design configurations are explored and modeled computationally to investigate their influence on the cooling phenomenon. In particular, COMSOL Multiphysics™ is employed to computationally explore the effects of collector-emitter configuration on the electrohydrodynamic phenomenon, the flow field and resulting cooling effects. Using both computational and experimental results, we estimate that a two-dimensional array of microfabricated ionic wind pumps covering approximately 2″ square should be able to dissipate greater than 2 W of heat, using about 1/5 the power input as a conventional fan.