Two-phase microchannel heat sinks for an electrokinetic VLSI chip cooling system

The trend towards higher speed and greater integration of modern ICs requir es improved cooling technology. This paper describes the design and charact erization of a two-phase microchannel heat sink in an electrokinetic VLSI c hip cooling system. The heat sink achieves a thermal resistance of 1 K/W fo r a 1.2 cm x 1.2 cm silicon thermal test chip under an open-loop operation with a water flowrate of 5 ml/min. Preliminary tests show that a closed-loo p EK-pumped system running at 1.2 ml/min and 12 psi removes 17.3 W, with he at rejection at an aluminum fin array. Further optimization of the microcha nnel dimensions and the operating pressure of the working fluid are expecte d to lower the resistance below 0.25 K/W.