Comparative analysis of integrated heat sink vapor chamber with conventional heat sink for LED cooling

Abstract

A light-emitting diode (LED) is an electronic component to transfer electrical energy into light. The conventional heat sink (CHS) removes the heat generated in LEDs; it still faces severe heat removal issues that affect the light quality and lighting efficiency and lower the life of LEDs. The thermal performance of the vapor chamber (VC) depends upon working fluid selection, fill ratio, thermal resistance (Rt), and VC material. The integrated heat sink vapor chamber (IHSVC) has a less thermal resistance and temperature drop than the CHS. Thereby, IHSVC can provide effective cooling over a CHS. In the presented research, we studied the thermal performance of microgroove IHSVC occupied with acetone for LED cooling application and compared CFD simulation results in terms of temperature distribution in CHS and IHSVC. A more uniform temperature distribution with a drop of 5 K inside IHSVC prove to be a good option compared to CHS with a temperature drop of 16 K. Due to incorporating a vapor sink at the base of a heat sink, better heat transfer takes place, and a 68.5 % less temperature drop for the case of a 60 W heat source applied to the 50 mm × 50 mm base area of the heat sink. It shows that the heat source area is inversely proportional to thermal resistance. The thermal resistance of the IHSVC decreases by 49.6 % with a 1.25-time increase in the source area at the base. Due to uniform temperature distribution with less temperature drop, an integrated vapor sink at the base of a conventional heat is the better option for effectively cooling LED.