Liquid Cooled Cold Plates for Industrial High-Power Electronic Devices—Thermal Design and Manufacturing Considerations

Abstract

Electronics cooling research has been largely focused on high heat flux removal from computer chips in the recent years. However, the equally important field of high-power electronic devices has been experiencing a major paradigm shift from air cooling to liquid cooling over the last decade. For example, multiple 250-W insulated-gate bipolar transistors used in a power drive for a 7000-HP motor used in pumping or in locomotive traction devices would not be sufficiently cooled with air-cooling techniques. Another example is a “hockey puck” SCR of 63 mm diameter used to drive an electric motor that could dissipate over 1500 W and is difficult to cool with air because of the shape of the device. Other devices include radio-frequency generators, industrial battery chargers, printing press thermal and humidity control equipment, traction devices, mining devices, crude oil extraction equipment, magnetic resonance imaging, and railroad engines. This article classifies the cold plates into four types: formed tube cold plate, deep drilled cold plate, machined channel cold plate, and pocketed folded-fin cold plate. The article further discusses selection of cold plate type and channel configuration, and some of the relevant manufacturing issues. It is recommended that the thermal designer be involved in the early stages during the electrical design and layout of the devices.