Numerical investigation on the thermal properties of the micro-cooler

The micro-pin-fins prepared on the back side of the power chip enable heat removal on the level of modern microsystem demands. Carbon nanotube (CNT) has been proven to be a potential material for micro-cooler because of its superior advantages including high thermal conductivity, good mechanical property and so forth. And there emerges various applications of CNT in the micro-cooler system. In the present paper, micro-pin-fin heat sink with gas impinging jet as the cooling medium is analyzed. The heat dissipation of forced air convection cooling with micro-pin-fin structures made of aligned carbon nanotube arrays has been taken into consideration. The three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was carried out. The temperature distribution and the pressure drop are studied in the cases of various geometrical parameters of the micro-pin-fin heat sinks at the same heating power prescribed. The fluid flow and the heat transfer phenomena in the micro-pin-fins heat sinks are investigated. The heat removal efficiency of the air micro-cooler is evaluated. An array of 8×8 fins with the optimized fin-to-base length ratio achieves the best cooling effect.