A Review of Recent Developments in Pumped Two-Phase Cooling Technologies for Electronic Devices

Abstract

In this review, the heat transfer characteristics of several pumped two-phase electronic cooling technologies are quantitatively examined and compared on the basis of heat flux, coolant temperatures, heat source area, base temperature, and coolant type. Cooling by parallel flow in mini/microchannels, pin fins, spray cooling, and jet impingement are discussed in detail. Chip powers up to 2.9 kW and heat fluxes 910 W/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> were demonstrated. The different surface modification techniques used to enhance heat transfer in all four technologies are also presented. Various coolants used in two-phase cooling applications are also quantitatively compared in terms of heat transfer coefficient (HTC), wall temperature, and heat source area. The current issues and potential research in two-phase cooling were also discussed. Water cooling has really high performance in terms of HTC. However, it is challenging for scientists and engineers to implement two-phase cooling with water at wall temperature lower than 100 °C due to high boiling point of water at atmospheric pressure. Therefore, two-phase cooling with water can be implemented in types of electronics that can tolerate higher junction temperature. Although having lower HTC, due to lower boiling point at atmospheric pressure, dielectric coolant can be a promising solution in two-phase cooling when lower chip temperatures are required. Geometry optimization of heat sinks is a promising research topic and has not been studied extensively considering the geometry parameters and solid–liquid interaction that affect thermal and hydraulic performance.