Thermal Management Challenges Research Articles

Level-set topology optimization of heat sinks with phase-change material

Phase-change materials (PCMs) excel in storing significant thermal energy through the latent heat of fusion during phase changes. However, they often suffer from low thermal conductivity, requiring the incorporation of materials with higher thermal conductivity to overcome this limitation. In this study, we employ the level-set method to topologically optimize the distribution of both PCM and high thermal conductivity materials within heat sinks.The heat transfer process is modeled as an unsteady diffusion problem, with PCM integrated using the apparent heat capacity method. The finite element method, implemented using FEniCS, is utilized to compute the temperature distribution at each time step. The optimization problem is solved using ParaLeSTO, a modular topology optimization software written in C++, seamlessly interfacing with FEniCS through its Python interface.To compute boundary point sensitivities for level-set topology optimization, the discrete adjoint method is employed, combining a perturbation scheme with automatic differentiation. The proposed methodology is first applied to a two-dimensional example of temperature oscillation minimization with a heat flux boundary condition, drawn from existing literature. Subsequently, a two-dimensional example with multiple volumetric heat sources is studied, followed by an extension to a three-dimensional design domain.Comparisons with optimized designs without PCM, serving as a reference, highlight the superior thermal performance of heat sink designs with PCM. The results showcase a maximum temperature reduction of up to 42%, a mean temperature reduction of up to 42%, and a temperature variance reduction of up to 94%. This research contributes to heat sink design by offering discrete solutions that significantly improve thermal performance as compared to designs without PCM. Its impact extends to addressing crucial challenges in thermal management across various applications, including automotive cooling systems, aerospace components, and consumer electronics.

CFD simulation of novel adaptive pin-fins microchannel heat sink to improve thermal management of electronic chips

Frequent hotspots pose a significant challenge for chip thermal management. Conventional microchannel with fixed structure cannot deal with random hotspots, which appear in irregular time and space. To address random hotspots and reduce microchannel energy consumption, a novel adaptive pin-fins microchannel (A-MCHS) is proposed in this paper to intelligently tackle with the hotspot region, which consists of a number of pin-fins with property of phase transition and volume shrinkage when the temperature is raised to 313.15 K. A CFD method is applied to study its thermal performance and user defined function (UDF) is used to realize the adaptive thermal response of pin-fins. It’s found that the adaptive pin-fins of the hotspot undergo volume reduction and enlarged local coolant flow under higher hotspot heat flux, illustrating the automatic and adaptive flow regulation effect. Compared with the fixed pin–fin microchannel, the local heat transfer performance of A-MCHS in the hotspot region is enhanced by 37.9 %, average Nu of the microchannel is advanced by 7.4 %, and the maximum chip surface temperature is reduced by up to 3.12 K. Moreover, it also shows a significant reduction of 10.7 % in pressure drop, suggesting a great energy saving in pumping cooling fluid. It’s indicated that the adaptive pin-fins microchannel provides efficient cooling and intelligently enhanced thermal management and energy saving for high heat flux electronic chips.

Integrated manifold microchannels and near-junction cooling for enhanced thermal management in 3D heterogeneous packaging technology

The rapid advancement in electronic chip technology is driving the evolution of highly integrated and high-power configurations, which in turn imposes greater demands on thermal management. This study presents a novel approach to address the thermal management challenges associated with high-density integrated chips. By incorporating the near-junction cooling method into silicon-based chips, the thermal resistance during heat conduction is effectively reduced. To further enhance heat dissipation efficiency, we integrate manifold microchannels and near-junction cooling into an aluminum nitride ceramic substrate, creating a heterogeneous three-dimensional integrated chip. To verify the effectiveness of our approach, a thermal test chip and an aluminum nitride substrate with a manifold structure are meticulously prepared and packaged for experimental testing. Remarkably, the experimental results demonstrate that the heterogeneous integrated chip, featuring manifold microchannels, achieves an impressive heat dissipation capacity of 700 W/cm2 under normal operating temperature conditions. Additionally, sensitivity analysis and multi-objective optimization approach were employed, utilizing the Response Surface-Genetic Algorithm П(NSGAП), to optimize the manifold microchannels in the heterogeneous integrated chip. The optimization process yields significant improvements, reducing the total thermal resistance of the chip by 13.6 % and the maximum pressure drop by 68.5 %. These findings provide valuable theoretical insights and guidance for the thermal design of high heat flux integrated chips, and contribute to advance the design and development of high-performance integrated circuit systems.

Rapid heat source layout optimization in three‐dimensional integrated circuits using artificial neural network reduced‐order model in combination with Bayesian optimization

AbstractIn this study, an efficient optimization framework was developed to determine the parameters of through‐silicon vias and the layout of heat sources in three‐dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs), employing an artificial neural network (ANN) reduced‐order model in conjunction with a Bayesian optimization (BO) algorithm. The proposed method effectively predicts the temperature distribution in 3D ICs and refines their thermal parameters, offering solutions to thermal management challenges. Latin hypercube sampling was utilized for data sampling, enhancing the previously established rapid thermal analysis method through parameterization of heat source locations. The temperature distribution data for varying hotspot locations in 3D ICs were fitted using an appropriately defined objective function, leading to the development of a reduced‐order ANN model that accelerates temperature prediction. The computational results demonstrate that the neural network model exhibits a deviation in predicted values of less than 2%, and the coefficient of determination R2 approximately 0.93, underscoring high predictive accuracy. Additionally, the optimization outcomes and the efficiency of the selected BO algorithm were thoroughly evaluated. Notably, the BO algorithm achieved the global optimum in just 4.07 s across 250 iterations, demonstrating an effective power distribution strategy for the 3D ICs model.

Evaluation on capillary performance of multifunctional ultra-thin composite wick

Vapor chamber technology offers an effective solution for addressing challenges in battery thermal management due to its superior heat transfer efficiency per unit volume. However, achieving a lightweight and ultra-thin VC, which relies significantly on the wick structure, is crucial for its practical application. Nonetheless, reducing the thickness of the wick compromises its capillary performance, thereby impacting the thermal performance of the VC. To overcome this challenge, this paper proposes a Multifunctional Ultra-Thin Composite Wick (MUTCW) which is an integration of cover shell and wicks, aimed at enhancing capillary properties while simultaneously reducing wick thickness. A series of capillary rate-of-rise experiments were conducted to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the MUTCW. The results demonstrate that a MUTCW sintered with a 0.1 mm #200 mesh layer exhibits the most favorable capillary performance, with a wick coefficient of 19.299, an average capillary velocity of 3.5 mm/s, and an average mass flow rate of 3.32 mg/s.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Single-Phase Liquid Cooling for Heterogeneous Integration Multichip Module

Abstract The variety of new electronic packaging technologies has grown significantly over the last 20 years as a result of market demands for higher device performance at lower costs and in less space. Those demands have pushed for heterogeneous packaging, where computer chips with different stack heights are closely packed, creating nonuniform heat flux and temperature and additional challenges for thermal management. Without implementing an appropriate thermal management strategy for heterogeneous packages, large temperature gradients can be observed within the package, which would increase the thermal stresses on the chip and raise reliability issues. To mimic this real-life scenario of such packaging, an experimental setup was designed and built. The design of the new experimental setup consists of four identical 1.2 cm × 1.2 cm ceramic heaters, each of which is connected to a separate power supply and can reach a heat flux of 140 W/cm2. Accordingly, this mock package is capable of delivering different power levels to mimic different multicore microprocessor conditions. To give the heater the ability to move precisely in the x-, y-, and z-directions, each heater is mounted to an XYZ linear stage. Deionized water (DI) was used as the working fluid, and a pin-fin heat sink was used to run the initial steady-state tests on the experimental rig. The tests showed how different flow rates at a constant fluid temperature and input power affect the temperatures of the heaters and the thermohydraulic performance of the heat sink. In addition, a three-dimensional numerical model has been developed and validated with experimental data in terms of heat sink pressure drop and the temperatures of the heaters.

Temperature forecasting for single-phase immersion cooling system based on machine learning

High-heat-flux-density data centres face significant thermal management challenges, particularly those for 5G and AI applications. Elevated processor temperatures lead to frequent thermal throttling and non-uniform thermal stresses, negatively impacting server performance and reliability. This highlights the need for effective thermal management strategies. Machine learning-based temperature prediction algorithms have shown promise in proactively managing the thermal condition of the system. In his study, a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B+ was immersed in mineral oil to simulate the workloads based on cryptography, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and data analytics. The discrete wavelet transform technique is used to mitigate the impact of noise interference in the experimental data. The results show that the attention-based LSTM encoder-decoder model (LSTM-ED-Attention) coupled with the entropy minimisation strategy outperformed the baseline LSTM encoder-decoder model by 22, 15 and 20% for prediction horizons of 10, 30 and 60 seconds, respectively.

The optimization of roll-bond cold plate based on Taguchi-grey theory for server chips thermal management

The roll-bond cold plate, an economical and straightforward electronics liquid cooling approach, is highly promising to address the increasing electronics chip thermal management challenges. However, the roll-bond cold plate with staggered cellular flow channels, while having a sizable solid-liquid contact area and high heat dissipation potential, suffers from inadequate temperature uniformity and fluidity. This study addresses flow and temperature uniformity issues in current roll-bond cold plates by proposing a design—Direct Liquid Cooling Roll-Bond Plates (DLCRBP) tailored for high-performance server architectures. To investigate how regional combination, cellular diameter, and longitudinal spacing affect both thermal and flow performance, orthogonal experiments with diverse flow channel structures were conducted using the Taguchi-grey theory. COMSOL-based numerical simulation were used to analyze these experiment conditions. Multi-objective optimization, considering pressure drop, heat source temperature uniformity, and coolant temperature difference, was then performed using the grey correlation method. The optimized DLCRBP (A3B5C1) was fabricated, and its performance was compared with the staggered cellular DLCRBP (SCS), which is the control group without optimization, under various inlet flow velocities, heat source powers, and coolant inlet temperatures. Experimental comparisons illustrate that the optimized structure ensures outstanding temperature uniformity even at low inlet flow velocities. Specifically, at an inlet flow velocity of 0.2 m/s, the average and maximum temperature differences on the heat source's upper surface are 36.5 % and 75.3 % lower, respectively, compared to pre-optimization levels. Furthermore, A3B5C1's temperature uniformity improves with higher coolant inlet flow velocity and lower coolant inlet temperatures. At a coolant inlet flow velocity of 0.5 m/s or higher, A3B5C1 sustains the surface temperature of a 600 W chip below the thermal design's safe temperature of 77.8 °C, highlighting its enhanced performance.

Multi-field coupling in designing embedded microchannels for three-dimensional integrated chip: A topology optimization approach

Topology optimization methods have shown promise in enhancing the heat transfer performance of microchannel structures. However, the thermal-electrical-force multi-field coupling effects in three-dimensional integrated chips present a complex heat generation scenario that necessitates their consideration in the design of embedded microchannel structures. Here, we perform topology optimization of embedded microchannels specifically tailored for three-dimensional integrated chip, with a specific focus on the multi-field coupling effects of through-silicon-via structures within the topology optimization process. A new and improved 2D microchannel structure that exhibits superior heat transfer performance was obtained by analyzing the effects of pressure drop constraints within the channel, as well as fixing the microfin diameter and local heat flux of through-silicon-via. Furthermore, the obtained topology optimization results were validated through rigorous three-dimensional numerical simulations. The findings demonstrate that the new microchannel structure, when compared to the original microfin model, yields a significant improvement in the comprehensive heat transfer performance coefficient, achieving a remarkable enhancement factor of 1.43. Furthermore, under identical flow conditions, the structural stress within the chip experiences a substantial reduction of 43.9%. These outcomes underscore the efficacy of the topology optimization approach in effectively addressing the thermal management challenges associated with three-dimensional integrated chip.

A Numerical Investigation of the Influence of Humid Environments on the Thermal Performance of a Phase Change Thermal Storage Cooling System in Buildings

Phase change thermal energy storage (PCTES) technology has garnered significant attention in addressing thermal management challenges in building HVAC systems. However, the cooling performance of PCTES systems in humid scenarios remains unexplored, which is crucial in subtropical regions, high-humidity underground areas, and densely populated spaces. Taking the mine refuge chamber (MRC) as an example, this study focuses on a passive temperature and humidity control system by employing cold storage phase change plates (PCPs) for 96 h. First, an improved and simplified full-scale numerical model including PCPs and MRC parts is established. Then, the model is validated through the experimental results and solved using a numerical method. Finally, the influence of various factors within the system is investigated and an optimization method involving batch operation is proposed. The results indicate that (1) within 40 h, the use of cold storage PCPs leads to an indoor temperature reduction of 4.8 °C and a 7% decrease in relative humidity; (2) the PCPs show asynchronous states in sensible and latent heat transfer rates; (3) for every 50 additional PCPs, the average indoor temperature increases by 0.6 °C and the relative humidity decreases by 1.5%; (4) implementing batch operation of PCPs ensures that the indoor Heat Index drops by 10 °C, which is vital for human survival. The findings will play a crucial role in the global expansion and application (including geographical and functional aspects) of phase change thermal storage technology.

Performance assessment of a geometrical modification on thermosyphon heat pipe with the assistance of novel convergent-divergent truncated cones for energy recovery systems

Heat pipe technology has evolved significantly in addressing thermal management challenges. Still, existing heat pipe designs have limitations in efficiently optimizing heat transfer, particularly in scenarios with spatial constraints and variable heat loads. To overcome these challenges, this study deals with incorporating truncated cones in different forms, such as convergent and divergent, in the thermosyphon heat pipe. The parametric analysis and the performance of this research highlight the ability to handle varying heat loads and determine that a 1:1:1 ratio between the evaporator, adiabatic, and condenser sections of 300 mm in total length thermosyphon heat pipe may be expected to meet spatial constraints efficiently. Placement of the convergent truncated cone in the evaporator and the divergent truncated cone in the condenser helps improve the evaporation and condensation performance by 62.07% and 108%, respectively, when compared to the conventional geometry due to the increasing vapour and liquid velocities. Interestingly, the wall temperature decreases by 11.9%, and the thermal resistance is reduced, increasing the heat transfer coefficient by 85.68% compared to the uniform geometry thermosyphon heat pipe. Hence, these findings provide a path for promising applications in heat recovery and thermal management systems.

Thermal Management of Proton‐Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells with Enhanced Fuzzy Control via an Improved Whale Optimization Algorithm

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) require an appropriate operating temperature to achieve high performance and longevity. In addressing the critical need for effective thermal management in PEMFCs for vehicle propulsion systems, this study has developed and introduced a novel thermal management system model equipped with dual‐cooling loops. Addressing the issues of slow response and poor dynamic performance inherent in traditional control strategies, as well as the computational complexity that hinders the practical application of existing advanced control strategies, this research proposes a fuzzy proportional‐integral‐derivative (PID) controller optimizing the improved whale optimization algorithm (IWOA‐FPID) aimed at enhancing fan side control. By simulating step changes in current load and designing dynamic operating conditions based on the most basic and simple energy management system, the performance of IWOA‐FPID in temperature control is validated. The final results indicate that the IWOA‐FPID strategy significantly outperforms existing control methods, notably reducing adjustment time and minimizing temperature overshoot to ≈0.5 K. The proposed framework achieves efficient temperature control, highlighting its potential for broader application in vehicular fuel cells and offering a promising solution to the challenges of PEMFC thermal management.

Bidirectionally High‐Thermally Conductive and Environmentally Adaptive Graphene Thick Films Enabled by Seamless Bonding Assembly for Extreme Thermal Management

AbstractWith the rapid development of high‐power electronics in aerospace, communication, and energy storage systems, the huge heat flux poses an increasing threat to the safety of electronic devices. Compared with thin films of a few micro thicknesses, high‐quality graphene thick film (GTF) exceeding hundreds of microns thickness is a promising candidate to solve thermal management challenges owing to higher heat‐flux. However, traditional GTF usually has lower thermal conductivity and weak mechanical properties attributed to disordered sheet alignment and frail interfacial adhesion. Here, a seamless bonding assembly (SBA) strategy is proposed to attain GTF over record hundreds of microns with robust coalescence interfaces. For the GTF‐SBA with ≈250 µm thickness, the in‐plane and through‐plane thermal conductivities are 925.75 and 7.03 W m−1 K−1, approximately two times and 12 times those of the GTF prepared by traditional adhesive assembly method, respectively. Furthermore, the GTF‐SBA demonstrates remarkable stability even after cycled harsh temperature shocks from 77 to 573 K, ensuring its environmental adaptability for long‐term service in extreme conditions. These findings provide valuable insights into the interfacial design of graphene bulk materials and highlight the potential applications of high‐performance graphene‐based materials for extreme thermal management demands.

A Comprehensive Review of Thermal Management in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: Focus on Burners, Heat Exchangers, and Strategies

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are emerging as a leading solution in sustainable power generation, boasting high power-to-energy density and minimal emissions. With efficiencies potentially exceeding 60% for electricity generation alone and up to 85% when in cogeneration applications, SOFCs significantly outperform traditional combustion-based technologies, which typically achieve efficiencies of around 35–40%. Operating effectively at elevated temperatures (600 °C to 1000 °C), SOFCs not only offer superior efficiency but also generate high-grade waste heat, making them ideal for cogeneration applications. However, these high operational temperatures pose significant thermal management challenges, necessitating innovative solutions to maintain system stability and longevity. This review aims to address these challenges by offering an exhaustive analysis of the latest advancements in SOFC thermal management. We begin by contextualizing the significance of thermal management in SOFC performance, focusing on its role in enhancing operational stability and minimizing thermal stresses. The core of this review delves into various thermal management subsystems such as afterburners, heat exchangers, and advanced thermal regulation strategies. A comprehensive examination of the recent literature is presented, highlighting innovations in subsystem design, fuel management, flow channel configuration, heat pipe integration, and efficient waste heat recovery techniques. In conclusion, we provide a forward-looking perspective on the state of research in SOFC thermal management, identifying potential avenues for future advancements and their implications for the broader field of sustainable energy technologies.

Thermal management of honeycomb heat sink filled with phase change material for smart lighting applications

Recently, thermal management of LEDs lamps has become increasingly essential due to the widespread integration of LEDs in smart lighting applications. In this work, we focus on the thermal analysis of convective heat transfer using a honeycomb heat sink designed for LEDs lamp cooling. Three different heat sink geometries were examined: an aluminum-filled honeycomb radiator, a hollow honeycomb radiator, and a hollow honeycomb radiator incorporating a phase change material (PCM) layer. The results obtained from numerical simulations using COMSOL Multiphysics® showed that the third heat sink geometry, when employed in short-duration lighting applications, led to a 25% reduction in temperature for a 20W power lamp. We also determined the optimal operational time, during which the temperature drop is maximum. Moreover, we observed that the integration of a PCM-filled honeycomb radiator in cyclic lighting applications (involving on/off cycles and high/low power settings) significantly mitigates temperature rise in the lamp by leveraging the PCM's heat storage capacity. This approach effectively prevents thermal shocks, ensures prolonged LEDs performance, and contributes to energy savings in the lighting sector. By addressing the thermal management challenges associated with LEDs lamps through innovative heat sink designs and the utilization of PCM, our research offers valuable insights for enhancing the overall performance and efficiency of LED lighting systems.

Numerical investigation on cooperative evaporation from microdroplet array on heated substrate

The evaporative heat and mass transport characteristics from an array of continuously fed microdroplet on a heated substrate are investigated numerically by a Multiphysics model, which incorporates heat conduction, buoyant flow, Marangoni flow, Stefan flow, and vapor diffusion. The effects of droplet spacing, contact angle, and droplet size on the evaporation rate, heat flux, and convection strength were analyzed in detail with a fixed thermal and vapor concentration boundary condition. The results revealed the existence of extremely strong convection current in the ambient gas domain for evaporation from droplet array. This convection effect dominates the vapor transport process, overcomes the suppression effect from neighboring droplet, and causes the total evaporation rate to exceed the prediction from traditional diffusion-based model by up to ten times. The strength of the convective vapor transport is characterized by a dimensionless parameter, which increases first from 2.3 to 7 and then decrease to 4 with increasing contact angle from 30° to 150°, but remains invariant at 6.3 for hemispherical droplet irrespective of the change in droplet dimension. Finally, the numerical results demonstrate potential for microdroplet array evaporation to resolve the thermal management challenge of ultrahigh power electronics with heat flux up to 1 kW/cm2.

Sustainable cooling solutions for electronics: A comprehensive review: Investigating the latest techniques and materials, their effectiveness in mechanical applications, and associated environmental benefits

This study presents a comprehensive review of the latest techniques and materials in sustainable cooling solutions for electronic systems, focusing on their effectiveness in mechanical applications and associated environmental benefits. The primary aim is to assess the current state and future prospects of sustainable cooling technologies, highlighting their role in addressing thermal management challenges while minimizing environmental impacts. The methodology adopted is a systematic literature review, drawing data from peer-reviewed academic journals, conference proceedings, and industry reports. The search strategy involved keyword searches, database filtering, and reference tracking, with a focus on recent advancements in cooling technologies and their environmental implications. Key findings reveal a significant shift from traditional cooling methods to innovative, environmentally friendly solutions. Advanced materials like phase-change materials and nanotechnology-based heat sinks, along with techniques such as liquid cooling and thermoelectric cooling, have emerged as effective solutions. These technologies offer improved thermal management, reduced carbon footprints, and enhanced resource efficiency. The future landscape of sustainable electronic cooling is expected to be shaped by smart technologies, new materials with superior thermal properties, and the integration of renewable energy sources. The study concludes with strategic recommendations for industry stakeholders and policymakers, emphasizing the need for fostering innovation, promoting green cooling solutions, and setting stringent environmental standards. Future research directions include exploring new materials and technologies, integrating cooling systems with renewable energy, and conducting lifecycle analyses to understand the environmental impact of these technologies fully. This study underscores the critical role of sustainable cooling technologies in achieving environmental sustainability in electronic systems.

Prospects and challenges for all-optical thermal management of fiber lasers

It is hard to overstate the utility of lasers in modern technology. Optical-fiber-based lasers are of particular value thanks to their combination of small form factors, afforded by the coilability of the thin strands of fiber, and high beam-quality output. The optical fiber geometry also possesses a relatively high surface-area-to-volume ratio, rendering thermal management somewhat more straightforward than in other bulk laser types. Regardless, the generation of heat during the lasing process can still be problematic for a myriad of reasons, and conventional methods of thermal management do not comport with the potential compactness and elegance of fiber lasers as technological solutions. This Perspective summarizes recent advances in glass science and optical fiber engineering to support the provocative premise that heat generation in future laser systems can be entirely managed by a combination of fiber materials and novel laser physics. Letting the fiber manage heat itself would have significant impacts on enhancing system performance while greatly reducing size, weight, power-consumption, and cost.

Characteristics of β-Ga2O3 MOSFETs on polycrystalline diamond via electrothermal modeling

The integration of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) has been considered as a promising approach for overcoming the thermal management challenges in β-Gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). This study investigates the coupled electrical and thermal characteristics of β-Ga2O3-on-diamond MOSFETs via electrothermal modeling. Results reveal that thicker diamond improves heat transfer efficiency with an optimal value of ∼100 μm by utilizing regions with higher thermal conductivity. The ambient temperature (Tamb) correlates negatively with the device temperature rise (ΔT) due to reduced electrical mobility and current density at elevated temperatures. Excellent electrical performance has been demonstrated for β-Ga2O3 MOSFETs, with a high saturation current density (Id,sat = 42.7 mA/mm) and a low specific on-resistance (RON,sp = 264.8 mΩ·mm2) at 300 K with Vg = −2 V and Vd = 20 V, along with a high on/off ratio (Ion/Ioff ∼ 1011) and a low subthreshold swing (SS = 83.3 mV/dec), making it highly suitable as a power switch. Comparative analysis with devices on other substrates (Si, SiC, and sapphire) highlights the exceptional carrier mobility and heat spreading capability benefited from the diamond substrate, especially at high power levels. Our TCAD-based fully-coupled electrothermal simulations provide comprehensive and accurate insights into the electrical and thermal performance of Ga2O3-based devices, offering guidance for the design and optimization of high-power devices.

Numerical Analysis of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Novel Microchannel Heat Sink

Microchannel heat sinks have gained prominence in the field of thermal management, offering compact and efficient solutions for dissipating heat flux from high performance electronic devices. Escalating heat flux in modern electronic devices, such as those found in telecommunication equipment, industrial automation equipment, solar devices, and data centre servers has driven the continuous development of microchannel heat sink to achieve efficient thermal management. The critical challenge in thermal management for these devices is to develop a microchannel that enhances heat transfer performance and minimises pressure drop. Heat transfer and pressure drop are two competing factors that determine the practicability of the design for real world application. Improvement in heat transfer performance usually results in an increase in pressure drop and pumping power. This study addresses the challenges of designing microchannel through comprehensive numerical analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of a novel design that combines ribs, secondary channels, and tertiary channels. The numerical results showed that the novel microchannel design achieves a favourable balance between heat transfer and pressure drop, demonstrating its potential to be used in application where high heat transfer and efficiency are paramount. To assess the performance of the microchannels, thermal resistance, a measure of system’s resistance to heat transfer is used. At the same pumping power, thermal resistance in the new design is consistently lower compared to other designs.