Albert P. Pisano (Advisor)

The ultimate project goal for the micro Loop Heat Pipe Chip Cooling System is to design and fabricate a substrate with high thermal conductivity that can be interfaced directly with high heat flux electronic chips. This new technology will be capable of satisfying the constantly increasing cooling requirements of today's electronic devices. A prototype has already been developed that utilizes phase change technology to absorb large heat fluxes through latent heat. In order to perform functional testing, however, a reliable hermetic sealing method must be developed. The major...

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is a promising candidate for an emerging field of sensors that is inaccessible for electrostatic devices. Harsh environment conditions, such as temperatures above 500 deg C, high pressures, or reactive media are detrimental to today's MEMS sensors. Devices based on the inert, high melting point material AlN however can withstand these and even harsher conditions. The piezoelectric properties of the material are preserved to very high temperatures (up to 1000 deg C) and can be used for sensing in accelerometers and both sensing and actuating in gyroscopes....

The main goal of this project is to develop a new technique to fabricate the coherent porous silicon (CPS) wick and integrate it into the micro loop heat pipe (micro-LHP). Another goal is to optimize the pore size, pitch, porosity and wick thickness to maximize the heat flux and capillary pressure in the device. Through control of pore size, the flow resistance of the micro-LHP will be defined. Finally, the novel design of the CPS wick will significantly increase the efficiency of micro-LHP while preventing the severe problems such as bubble formation, liquid- vapor interface...

The micro scale loop heat pipe (Micro-LHP) is an ongoing research project dedicated to the design and testing of a new cooling system for thermal management of high-power electronics. With the high power densities of current and future power systems and high performance electronics, comes a continuing need for novel thermal management and cooling solutions. Some of the most promising solutions utilize phase change, such as micro loop heat pipes and vapor chambers. A leading topic for several years has been pool boiling with different surfaces to raise the critical heat flux (CHF) bar...