A novel ultra-thin vapor chamber for heat dissipation in ultra-thin portable electronic devices

Abstract

Ultra-thin vapor chamber (UTVC) is an efficient heat transfer element that meets the heat dissipation requirement of miniaturized electronics. In this study, a novel UTVC (0.5 mm thick) with four spiral woven meshes and one bottom mesh composite wick was designed for cooling portable electronic devices. The UTVCs were manufactured using a cost-effective process suitable for mass production. The heat transfer performance of the UTVCs with different filling ratios were tested and the maximum heat transfer capacity of the UTVCs with filling ratios of 90%, 100%, 110% and 120% were 5.10 W, 7.58 W, 6.58 W and 6.33 W, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum heat transfer capacity of the optimal filling ratio UTVC (100%) in five representative placement states: horizontal state, gravity state, anti-gravity state, side state and inverted state were 7.58 W, 9.06 W, 6.33 W, 7.33 W and 7.58 W, respectively. The maximum effective thermal conductivity of the UTVC was found to be about 20900 W/(m·K) in horizontal state and 25200 W/(m·K) in gravity state, which were about 52 times and 63 times higher than that of pure copper, respectively. The proposed novel UTVC is promising for solving the heat dissipation problem of high performance ultra-thin portable electronic devices.