A source-integrated micropump for cooling of high heat flux electronics

This paper presents an overview of the progress in the design of a planar ion drag micropump. The micropump is tested in a loop system. The pump performance was analyzed with regard to three parameters: pump channel height, electrode spacing, and distance between the electrode stages. HFE 7100 (3M's heat transfer liquid) was pumped in channels of depths 100 /spl mu/m, 220 /spl mu/m, 350 /spl mu/m and 450 /spl mu/m. The electrode gaps were tested at 20 /spl mu/m and 50 /spl mu/m while the distance between electrode stages was set to 80 /spl mu/m, 100 /spl mu/m and 200 /spl mu/m. Experimental results were checked against a simplified numerical model and satisfactory agreement was found. The pumping results are very encouraging as a flow rate of up to 7.92 mL/min was achieved at an applied voltage of 500 V. It was also shown that channel height has a very significant effect on the pumping performance. However, an optimum design might involve a compromise between pump mass flow rate and efficiency.