In the digital age, Moore's Law is driving the rapid development of electronic chips in the direction of miniaturization. However, the lack of advanced cooling technology greatly limits the operating power of small electronic devices, and the problem of chip heat dissipation has become a key problem to be solved urgently.
A study published by a research team from the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo in Cell Reports Physical Science has brought an important breakthrough to the improvement of the heat dissipation performance of chips. One of the most promising approaches in chip cooling today is to embed microchannels directly inside the chip, using the water flowing within the channels to efficiently absorb and transfer heat. However, the efficiency of this technique is limited by the sensible heat of water. Sensible heat refers to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a substance without a phase change, while the latent heat (i.e., the heat energy absorbed during boiling or evaporation) during the phase change in water is about 7 times that of sensible heat. Hong Yuanshi, the first author of the study, explained: "Using the latent heat of water to achieve two-phase cooling can significantly improve heat dissipation efficiency.”
Although previous studies have shown the potential of two-phase cooling, they have also exposed the complex problems of this technology, which are mainly reflected in the difficulty of managing the vapor bubble flow after heating. In this study, a novel water-cooled system was designed, which is composed of a three-dimensional microfluidic channel structure, and uses both a capillary structure and a manifold distribution layer. A variety of capillary geometries have been designed and fabricated, and their properties have been studied under different conditions.
It was found that the geometry of the microchannels through which the coolant flows, as well as the manifold channels that control the coolant distribution, have an impact on the thermal and hydraulic performance of the system. The system has been tested with a coefficient of performance (COP) of 10⁵, which is a significant improvement over conventional cooling technologies.
Figure: Application of advanced thermal management technology in heat dissipation of electronic devices
"Thermal management of high-performance electronics is critical to the development of next-generation technologies, and our design may open up new avenues to achieve the desired cooling effect," said senior author Masahiro Nomura. "High-performance electronics rely on advanced cooling technologies, and this research is expected to be key to maximizing the performance of future devices and achieving carbon neutrality.
Looking to the future, there is a clear development trend of advanced thermal management technology for chip heat dissipation. On the one hand, with the rapid development of AI and other technologies, the demand for computing power chips has surged, and the requirements for heat dissipation technology will also be higher. For example, the microchannel cooling technology will be developed in a more refined direction in the future, further improving the flow efficiency of the coolant in the microchannel, while reducing the flow resistance, so that the heat can be carried away more quickly and stably.
On the other hand, the phase change cooling technology will also be continuously optimized. The researchers will continue to solve the problem of managing the flow of steam bubbles after heating, and adjust the geometry of the microchannel, capillary structure, and coolant characteristics to allow the steam bubbles to flow in an orderly manner, so as to give full play to the efficient heat dissipation advantages brought by the latent heat of aqueous phase change, and further improve the heat dissipation efficiency.
In addition, the collaborative application of multiple heat dissipation technologies will also become a trend. For example, the combination of microchannel cooling and jet cooling, the microchannel is used to initially export the heat inside the chip, and then the key hot areas are accurately cooled through jet cooling, so as to achieve all-round and multi-level efficient heat dissipation, so as to meet the heat dissipation needs of high-power and high-integration chips in the future, help the performance of electronic equipment continue to improve, and promote the entire industry to a new stage of development.
