A Self-Contained Cold Plate Utilizing Force-Fed Evaporation for Cooling of High-Flux Electronics

Abstract

In recent years, the rapid increase in the functionality, speed, and power density of electronics has introduced new challenges, which have led to demand for high heat flux electronics cooling at levels that cannot be met by conventional technologies. The next generation of high power electronics will require advanced cooling beyond the methodologies currently available. This thesis describes work done on a novel form of two-phase heat transfer, named "Force-Fed Evaporation," which addresses this need. This process utilizes evaporation of a liquid in a microchannel surface to produce high heat transfer coefficient cooling at very high heat flux while maintaining a low hydraulic pressure drop. Component level tests were conducted to demonstrate the capability of this process. This led to the development of a self-contained, two-phase cold plate suitable for cooling a high power circuit board. The results show that this technology bears promise for the future of electronics cooling.