The ultimate goal of the microColumnated Loop Heat Pipe (mLHP) is to develop a highly-integratable isothermal "ground plane" (analogous to an electronic ground plane) to more efficiently transport heat away from high-power electronic devices. Metallic and even synthetic diamond substrates, which rely solely on solid conduction for thermal transport, are gradually proving themselves inadequate as heat spreaders for current and future electronic devices. Consequently, there is tremendous interest in cooling technologies that utilize phase change for the absorption and rejection of waste heat generated by high power density electronic circuits. Not only does phase change technology dramatically increase effective conductivity by taking advantage of latent heat, it also allows for near isothermal heat transfer, thus promoting homogeneous thermal conditions (i.e. low delta T) across large, often thermally heterogeneous chip carriers. The mLHP must be highly planar, extremely reliable, and should be integratable with a wide variety of electronic substrate materials.
Project end date: 08/18/11