Micro-channel heat sink with multiple interactive pressure-driven or electro-osmotic flows

A micro-channel heat sink with multiple interactive pressure-driven or electro-osmotic flows is developed for the thermal management of electron devices with high power density. Several structures have been designed, which will enable high heat dissipation capability, even temperature distribution and low driving pressure/electric field. This thermal solution shows enhanced cooling capability not only in dissipating the uniform heat flux but also in diminishing the localized hot spots for the electric devices. For the new heat sink structure of larger hydraulic diameter with pressure-driven flow, the thermal resistance can be decreased by 65% compared with the regular structure. With the same operating flow rate, the proposed structure enables 80% decrease of the pressure drop in addition to about 25% improvement of the thermal resistance. For the new structure of smaller hydraulic diameter with electro-osmotic flow, the thermal resistance is highly reduced, and about 45% improvement can be obtained. With the same flow rate, the electric voltage can be decreased by about 50%. More even temperature distribution can be obtained by using the new heat sink for hot spots cooling.