Jet impingement is encountered in numerous applications demanding high heating or cooling fluxes. Examples include annealing of metal sheets and cooling of turbine blades, x-ray medical devices, laser weapons, and fusion blankets. The attractive heat transfer attributes of jet impingement have also stimulated research efforts on cooling of high-heat-flux microelectronic devices. These devices are fast approaching heat fluxes in excess of 100 W/cm[sup 2], which have to be dissipated using coolants that are both electrically and chemically compatible with electronic components. Unfortunately, fluids satisfying these requirements tend to possess poor transport properties, creating a need for significant enhancement in the heat transfer coefficient by such means as increased coolant flow rate and phase change. The cooling problem is compounded by a need to cool large arrays of heat sources in minimal volume, and to reduce the spacing between adjacent circuit boards. These requirements place severe constraints on the packaging of jet impingement cooling hardware.