Experimental study on the bionic microchannel heat sink integrated with a piezoelectric pump

Abstract

The increased integration of electronic chips and the miniaturization of electronic products significantly raise the heat generated by electronic devices. To meet the cooling requirements of highly integrated electronic devices and enhance the cooling performance of the piezo-driven cooling system, a piezo-driven microchannel liquid-cooling system for CPU chip cooling was developed. The system integrated a bionic microchannel heat sink and a piezoelectric pump with umbrella valves (PP-UV). The piezoelectric pump was used as the driving source to propel the coolant flow, and the output of the piezoelectric pump pulsated, contributing to the convective heat transfer of the fluid in the microchannel. The spider web microchannel heat sink (SWM-HS) was designed and compared with the tandem Y-shaped microchannel heat sink (T-YMHS). The performance of the piezo-driven microchannel heat sink system with different structured microchannel heat sinks was studied by combining experimentation and simulation. The results indicated that the SWM-HS cooling system exhibited better fluid transmission and cooling characteristics, along with lower input power (3.32 mW). When the drive voltage was 100 V, the output flow of the SWM-HS cooling system was 56.4 mL/min. With a thermal power consumption of 30 W, the CPU temperature remained stable at approximately 55 °C, while the total thermal resistance measured 0.183 °C/W. In comparison with T-YMHS, the internal pressure drop of the SWM-HS decreased by 20.7 %, the Nusselt number increased by 13.7 %, and it achieved a cooling efficiency of 64.48 %. The experimental results aligned well with the simulation results. This work contributes to advancing the application of piezoelectric devices in electronic cooling and enhancing the cooling efficiency of miniature cooling systems.