Application of Micro-Channel Fin for Cold Plate of Liquid Cooling System and Vapor Chamber

Abstract

Recently energy saving is most important concept for all electric products and production. Especially, in Data-Center cooling system, power consumption of current air cooling system is increasing. For not only improving thermal performance but also reducing electric power consumption of this system, liquid cooling system has been developed. This paper reports the development of cold plate technology and vapor chamber application by using micro-channel fin. In case of cold plate application, micro-channel fin technology is good for compact space design, high thermal performance, and easy for design and simulation. Another application is the evaporating surface for vapor chamber. The well-known devices for effective heat transfer or heat spreading with the lowest thermal resistance are heat pipes and vapor chamber, which are two-phase heat transfer devices with excellent heat spreading and heat transfer characteristics. Normally, vapor chamber is composed of sintered power wick. Vapor chamber container is mechanically supported by stamped pedestal or wick column or solid column, but the mechanical strength is not enough strong. So far, the application is limited in the area of low strength assembly. Sometime the mechanical supporting frame is design for preventing deformation. In this paper, the testing result of sample is described that thermal resistance between the heat source and the ambient can be improved approximately 0.1°C/W by using the micro-channel vapor chamber. Additionally, authors presented case designs using vapor chamber for cooling computer processors, and proposed ideas of using micro-channel vapor chamber for heat spreading to replace the traditional metal plate heat spreader.