Study of hotspot cooling using electrowetting on dielectric digital microfluidic system

This paper presents a novel digital microfluidic (DMF) liquid cooling system using electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) developed for demonstrating and studying hotspot cooling towards electronics thermal management. The merits of this cooling system lie in the fact that no mechanically moving parts such as valves, pumps and fans are required to achieve cooling pumping, thus having smaller form factor than bulky heat pipes and other conventional cooling systems. This study reveals close profiles of temperature change during coolant drop motion over hotspot as well as importance of phase-change cooling around the meniscus of the droplet.