MEMS-based thermal management of high heat flux devices for integrated cooling of electronics

This paper describes the development of EDIFICE: Embedded Droplet Impingement For Integrated Cooling of Electronics. The EDIFICE project seeks to develop an integrated droplet impingement cooling device for removing chip heat fluxes over 100 W/cm/sup 2/, employing latent heat of vaporization of dielectric fluids. Micro-spray nozzles are fabricated to produce 50-100 micron droplets coupled with surface texturing on the backside of the chip to promote spreading and boiling. A novel features to enable adaptive on-demand cooling is MEMS sensing and MEMS actuation. EDIFICE is integrated within the electronics package and fabricated using advanced micromanfacturing technologies.