Patent Grant
7334630
This invention relates generally to removal of heat from heat generating devices. Specifically, this invention relates to removal of heat from integrated circuits, opto-electronic devices, power electronics, bioanalytical devices and any devices that dissipate or absorb sufficient heat so as to require specific means for heat removal.
Electronic systems, including, for example, laptop, hand-held and desktop computers as well as cell phones operate through the use of input electrical power. These have the characteristic that some of the input power is converted to heat, and the heat generated is typically concentrated in an identifiable area, such as an integrated circuit chip or a circuit board. Such devices and products incorporate heat sinks, fans, heat-pipes, refrigeration, and cooling water as needed to regulate their operating temperature within specific ranges.
It is predicted that electronic devices currently under development will generate heat at total rates and spatial densities exceeding the cooling capabilities of conventional heat sinking technology. For example, technology targets set by the semiconductor industry and summarized by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors indicate the need to remove as much as 200 W from the surface of a microprocessor before the year 2007. The trends towards higher total power and power density are similarly extreme in the optical telecommunications industry, the power electronics industry, and elsewhere. Conventional heat sinks are simply incapable of removing the targeted powers and power densities within a volume consistent with system design and market expectations.
This situation is exacerbated by targeted reductions of total system volume, which diminish the volume and surface area available for cooling devices. The interaction of these two trends (increasing head load and decreasing system volume) are recognized as a critical problem for the future of the semiconductor industry, and for other industries that rely on heat-generating or absorbing devices.
Conventional techniques for removing heat from devices include a number of well-established technologies.
Heat Sinks generally consist of metal plates with fins that transport heat from the device to the surrounding air by natural or forced convection. The heat sink fins serve to increase the area of contact between the device and the air, thereby increasing the efficiency of the heat transfer. Heat sinks of many materials, geometries, and constructions have been known for more than 50 years.
Fans consisting of rotating blades driven by electric motors can enhance the heat transfer between a heat sink and the surrounding air by causing the air to circulate around and through the heat sink with greater velocity than that which results from natural convection. Fans have been used for cooling systems for more than 30 years. Integration of fans with heat sinks for cooling of devices which generate large quantities of heat have been developed by many inventors, and are in wide use.
Heat pipes consist of a hollow tube which incorporates a wicking structure, and is partially filled with liquid. One end of the heat pipe is placed in contact with the heat-generating device. At this end of the heat pipe, the liquid evaporates, and vapor travels down the hollow center of the pipe to the other end. This end is placed into contact with a cold medium, or a heat sink, or is in contact with the surrounding air, and acts to cool the vapor in the center of the tube to the condensation temperature. This liquid, after condensation, is transported back to the hot end of the tube by capillary forces within the wicking structure. Heat pipes can offer significantly better heat conduction than solid metal rods of the same dimensions, and are widely used in many applications. Heat pipes are presently used for heat removal in electronic products, spacecraft, and a variety of other applications where heat generation in compact geometries is of interest. Heat pipes may be formed in many geometric structures, and may be integrated into the device package for efficient heat transport (U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,580), or may be used to deliver heat some distance away through a flexible coupling (U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,423). Vapor chambers closely resembles a heat pipe in operating principle and dimensions, but generally has a rectangular (rather than tubular) cross-sectional shape and can involve varying geometrical placements of the wicking structure. Both heat pipes and Vapor chambers are subject to the same basic physical limit for the peak power: The longer the separation between the heat source and the heat sink, and the smaller the cross sectional area, the smaller the total heat power that can be removed before these devices reach the capillary limit, or dry-out, condition.
Active cooling of a device via a vapor-compression cycle or by thermoelectric or other solid-state cooling devices is used in some high-performance thermal control applications, or where regulation at low temperatures is required. In these applications, the heat from the device is transported to the rejection surface, and significant excess heat is added due to the limited thermodynamic efficiency of the cooling mechanism. The rejection surface must generally be cooled by one of the other means described herein. Vapor-Compression refrigeration cycles have been used in many applications ranging from home air-conditioning and kitchen refrigeration to spacecraft and cryogenic systems for many years.
Cooling water is used in situations where large quantities of heat are generated, and the other methods described herein are unable to reject the heat to the surrounding air. In this case, a continuous supply of cool water is required, and this cool water is passed around or through the device or channels in an attached structure. Thereafter, the warmer water is returned to the waste water system.
In miniaturized applications employing cooling water techniques exist which address the problem of miniaturized microchannel cooling systems, miniaturized, closed-loop cooling systems, and systems which rely on active pumping of fluids to achieve cooling. Microchannel heat exchangers were originally explored by Tuckerman et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,472, U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,067) in the early 1980s. These devices contained straight, uniform-cross-section microfabricated channels within a silicon substrate, through which liquid coolant was passed. Subsequent patents followed the original work of Tuckerman and Pease (U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,472), including descriptions of microchannel fabrication methods, attachment methods, and specific materials and designs for specific applications.
Microchannel heat sink design to achieve higher heat transfer coefficients or improved temperature uniformity has also been explored. Phillips (U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,709) described liquid microchannel cooling with a guard header structure to improve temperature uniformity in the chip. Frieser (U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,012) described modifications of the surface of the microchannel to improve nucleate boiling and the heat transfer coefficient. Swift (U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,632) and Walpole (U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,910) described channels with alternating flow directions to improve temperature uniformity. Lomolino (U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,174) used a two-fluid mixture to control the effective heat capacity of the coolant and turbulence over a targeted temperature range.
Closed-loop cooling systems employing microchannels have also been an active area of research in recent years, including the description by Hamilton (U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,037) of a closed-loop cooling system in which fluids are passed through microchannels attached to the integrated circuit, and a magnetic pump generates the pressure. Further, Davis (U.S. Pat. No. 5,703,536) describes the use of a closed loop fluidic cooling system for cooling of high-power RF transmitters.
There has been extensive research into the development of micropumps. These research efforts include pumps based on oscillating piezoelectric membranes, peristaltic pumps, electrohydrodynamic pumps, and others. These pumps, to date, appear to be incapable of generating the pressure and/or flow necessary for application to removal of high heat flux from high-power devices.
The phenomenon of electro-osmosis has been known since the work of F. F. Reuss in 1809. A simple description of this phenomenon is that liquid flow is induced on a region of net charge that develops at the liquid/wall interface. The magnitude of the force is proportional to the applied electric field, and the quantity of the charged species available in this region of net charge. Larger flow rates can be achieved for systems with large cross-sectional areas. Large pressure generation requires structures with very high surface-t0 -volume ratio.
Miniature pumps based on the phenomenon of Electro-Osmosis (i.e., Electroosmotic pumps) were originally developed by Theeuwes (U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,426), in which a porous ceramic structure was used to provide a multitude of micron-sized pathways with charged surface layers. Theeuwes describes the importance of selecting pumping structures which feature high porosity, high electroosmotic mobility for a given working fluid, small diameter pores, and discusses the possibility of the use of quartz or glass ceramics, possibly comprised of beads, and porous polymer matrices. The working fluid in the Theeuwes pump was suggested to have a high dielectric constant, low viscosity, and low electrical conductivity. Example liquids that the Theeuwes pump used include deionized water, ethyl-alcohol and alcohol-water mixtures, and many organic solutions. With these materials and solutions, flow rates in excess of 1 mL/min and pressures exceeding 1 Atmosphere were reported.
Despite the many different and diverse cooling systems and techniques described above, there exists a need for an improved closed-loop, fluidic cooling systems and techniques for high power applications having the capability of being implemented in a miniaturized environment. In addition, there exists a need for an improved miniature fluidic cooling system having feedback-controlled temperature regulation of devices that facilitates, for example, hotspot cooling by way of, for example, active regulation of the temperature of the integrated circuit device through electrical control of the flow through the pump. Such miniature fluidic cooling system may utilize multiple cooling loops (in conjunction with multiple pumps) to allow independent regulation of the special and temporal characteristics of the device temperature profiles.
Moreover, there exists a need for a miniature pump that is capable of generating the high pressure (for example, pressure greater than 10 PSI) and/or high flow (for example, a flow rate greater than 5 ml/min) that are necessary for the removal of the predicted high heat flux (for example, power greater than 100 W). Such a pump should overcome or address the shortcomings of the conventional pumps, for example a pump configuration for use in a closed-loop systems that addresses practical issues involving evolved gases (for example, by way of recapture) or deposited materials. These issues tend to be prominent in closed-loop fluidic cooling systems employing pumps.
In one aspect, the present invention advantageously provides for the removal of heat from heat generating devices and transporting to a heat rejection structure through the use of a fluidic loop with a pump. Some of the many specific advantages that are obtainable can be taken singularly or in various combinations.
The present invention has the capability of removing high heat fluxes and high total power from devices.
The present invention also may minimize the volume and weight of the elements of the cooling system that must be attached to the heat generating device, as well as the weight of the pumps and heat exchangers.
The present invention can also simulate the device temperature distribution resulting from the operation of the device together with the micro heat exchanger. The simulation determines the thermal resistance for heat transfer to a micro heat exchanger for a given flow rate and set of microchannel configurations.
The present invention also optimizes the shape and distribution of microchannels in the micro heat exchanger and minimize spatial and temporal temperature variations on the device, even considering large spatial and temporal changes in the heat flux due to variations in the operation of the device.
The present invention also has the capability of minimizing the temperature variations in the device, even in the presence of large nonuniformities in heat flux, which can have a strongly detrimental effect on its performance and reliability. This is achieved through the tailoring of placement, geometry, and internal features of the microchannel heat exchanger. Optimal microchannel design is achieved using simulation capability of the present invention, claimed below.
The present invention provides flexibility in the location of the heat rejection elements, in particular enabling a large separation from the location of the heat generating device. Also enabled is a large area for rejection, which reduces the thermal resistance of the rejection and of the system as a whole.
Apparatus and methods according to the present invention preferably utilize electroosmotic pumps that are capable of generating high pressure and flow without moving mechanical parts and the associated generation of unacceptable electrical and acoustic noise, as well as the associated reduction in reliability. These electroosmotic pumps are preferably fabricated with materials and structures that improve performance, efficiency, and reduce weight and manufacturing cost relative to presently available micropumps. These electroosmotic pumps also preferably allow for recapture of evolved gases and deposited materials, which may provide for long-term closed-loop operation.
Apparatus and methods according to the present invention also allow active regulation of the temperature of the device through electrical control of the flow through the pump and can utilize multiple cooling loops to allow independent regulation of the spatial and temporal characteristics of the device temperature profiles.
These and other advantages and aspects of the present invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following detailed description of the presently preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which:
The present invention provides, in one aspect, a compact cooling system for electronic systems based on micro heat exchangers, specifically microchannels machined in silicon or metals, and compact electroosmotic pumps. The system is hermetically-closed and may be arranged in a modular fashion, enabling efficient heat removal from a device, and transport to a convenient macro heat exchanger. The micro heat exchangers and electroosmotic pumps as described are extremely compact and power-efficient, such that the total system is far smaller and lighter than heat pipes, vapor chambers, and fin-array heat sinks usually used for removing comparable power from miniature devices. The system is interconnected by flexible tubing and therefore offers advantages in design flexibility. Certain embodiments of the system are generally referred to as the loop system since in its preferred form the various components establish a closed-loop through which the liquid that provides for thermal energy transfer travels.
Various figures show different aspects of the system, and, where appropriate, reference numerals illustrating like components in different Figures are labeled similarly. It is understood that various combinations of components other than those specifically shown are contemplated. Further, separate components, such as the microheat exchanger, macroheat exchanger, and pumps are at times described with reference to a particular system embodiment, and while such description is accurate, it is understood that these components, with the variants described, are independently significant and have patentable features that are described separate and apart from the system in which they are described.
Micro Heat Exchanger. Micro heat exchanger 200 achieves very low thermal resistance in a compact cross section (thickness less than 1 mm). It attaches directly to the surface of the device using thermal attach materials, such as silver-filled epoxy or solders. The design of choice uses channels with dimensions in the range 20-500 micrometers (microchannels, as described further hereinafter). Significant aspects of this micro heat exchanger 200 are separate groups of channels with integrated thermometers. The spatial distribution, dimensions, and flow directions are tailored to the varying heat fluxes occurring at different functional locations on the chip or device 50. In addition, the geometry and arrangement of these microchannels or microjets can be optimized to enable uniformity of temperature across the device 50, or to allow for independent control of temperature in different regions of the device 50, as discussed below.
The micro heat exchanger 200 can be fabricated from a variety of materials, including, for example, thin metal sheets, silicon and glass layers, ceramics, and carbon-fiber composites. Materials for this structure are to be chosen to meet requirements for thermal conduction from the device 50 to the fluid, and to achieve high reliability of the attachment to the device 50 and for long-term operation in contact with the fluids in the loop. The need for reliable attachment results in a desire to match the thermal expansion coefficient to that of the device 50. Since many of the devices 50 under consideration are fabricated from silicon, fabrication of the micro heat exchanger 200 from silicon may be advantageous. In addition, silicon fabrication methodologies allow precision control of the shape and arrangement of the microchannels, and enables integration of temperature sensors, pressure sensors, and control circuitry into the microchannel structure. Alternatively, metal fabrication methods are capable of approaching the required dimensional control, and in certain circumstances offer advantages over silicon, such as low-cost fabrication, high-reliability sealing technology, and compatibility with the thermal requirements of some applications. An advantage of this invention is that there is considerable flexibility in the selection of the materials and geometries of the microchannel structures which, in part and under certain circumstances, is based on the capabilities of the electroosmotic pumps 300.
Electroosmotic Pump 300. There are many possible kinds of pumps that may be implemented and operated in the system described herein. Preferably, however, there is used a novel electroosmotic pump 300 (also referred to as “EO pump 300” or simply “pump 300”) that is capable of producing high pressure and high flow rates at its output. Electroosmotic pumps 300 use electric fields to propel charges in the vicinity of a liquid-solid interface, and are generally tailored to have a very high ratio of surface to volume in the active pumping element. Pumps 300 can be made using a very wide variety of fabrication methods, because the basic electrochemistry of the charged layer and the resulting electroosmosis is known to occur for many material surfaces when brought into contact with water or aqueous solutions. The nature of the interaction between a particular solution and a particular surface will result in variations in the amount of charged solution that is available to be pulled by the applied electric field. As a result, the performance of the EO pump 300 is dependent on this surface interaction, and it may be useful to choose surfaces and solutions that create a strong electroosmotic pumping effect.
High pressure and flow rates for pumps 300 may result from, for example, using sintered microporous media, such as borosilicate frits, polymer frits, and packed beds of glass microparticles. Aerogels, glass fiber composites, nanostructured media, porous silica, microchannel plate structures, other porous ceramic materials, and many other materials which offer high surface/volume ratios and chemically active surfaces may be used to fabricate electroosmotic pumps 300. It is also possible to use lithographic methods to directly fabricate structures with high surface/volume ratios. Silicon microfabricated pumping structures can have the advantage of being integrated with other micro heat exchanger 200 elements, including the sensors and the microchannel structures, and control electronics such as controller 500, all within a single module, as described further hereinafter.
Macro Heat Exchanger 400. The macro-heat exchanger 400 offers very low thermal resistance between the closed-loop system and the environment. The macro heat exchanger 400 may be comprised of many conventional heat-rejection devices that implement many different methods, and serves to provide rejection to the environment at low thermal resistance. For example, the macro-heat exchanger 400 may include a metal, fan-cooled heat sink, or a dedicated portion of the case of the device enclosure or package. It is emphasized that the cooling loop allows enormous design flexibility for the macro heat exchanger 400 because, in certain implementations, the macro heat exchanger 400 may be placed far away from the device 50, and need not be physically compatible with the requirements of the region near the device 50.
Controller 500. The controller 500 takes standard input voltages available from the electronic system of the device 50 and converts them to the operating voltages required by the electroosmotic pump 300. The controller 500 also monitors the temperature, pressure, and flow rate sensors integrated within the micro heat exchanger 200, provides appropriate driving voltages to a power supply associated with the pump 300 to establish the appropriate current between the anode 314 and the cathode 316 of each electroosmotic pump 300 to cause the environment that will propel the liquid phase of the working fluid within the pump 300. For large-area devices 50 (exceeding 2 cm2), designs using multiple sensors and electroosmotic pumps 300 may provide cooling at varying rates to microchannels grouped near different regions of the device 50.
In addition to variations in the methods for fabrication of the materials and structures of the components described above, including pumps 300, the present invention describes in another aspect unique operational methods.
One unavoidable aspect of the use of electroosmotic pumping methods is the electrochemistry of the interaction between the fluid and the electrodes. The exchange of charge at this interface causes electrolysis, and will lead to the decomposition of some of the constituents of the fluid. In the case of water, electrolysis results in the continuous formation of H2 at one electrode and O2 at the other electrode.
One aspect of this invention, therefore, as described further hereinafter, is the incorporation of a catalytic recombiner that consists of a catalyst composed of a hydrophobic Platinum catalyst. H2 and O2 are recombined to form water at this catalyst, and the hydrophobic nature of this surface causes the water to bead up and fall from the catalyst surface and return to the fluid. Another method by which liquid is kept away from the catalyst surface is by use of the heat of reaction associated with the oxidation of hydrogen. The recombination of hydrogen and oxygen into water allows the implementation of the system 100 as described herein as a closed, hermetically sealed system. While many different catalyst materials may work, it has been found that a hydrophobic platinum catalyst, described further herein, has worked best at the present time.
Other aspects of the invention described herein are the design of the inlet and outlet, the electrode design, and the position of the recombination chamber such that oxygen and hydrogen bubbles can be combined in a single, small volume chamber.
Oxygen bubbles generated at the upstream electrode (anode 314) are driven into the recombination chamber by pressure (i.e., buoyancy) forces. Hydrogen bubbles flow through the closed-loop system (subject to pressure, surface tension, and viscous forces) and, upon entering the inlet 322 of the pump 300 are also driven up into the recombination chamber 312 by buoyancy, eventually into the mesh or pellet catalytic recombiner 326, where the hydrogen recombines to form water as mentioned above.
During operation of the cooling loop, continuous evaporation of the fluid in the evaporation region can result in the accumulation of residues within the evaporator or elsewhere in the cooling loop. These residues may include electrolytes and salts that precipitate from the solution during the evaporation, or any other dissolved solids. Some of these electrolytes may have been deliberately added because of their ability to preserve the properties of the surfaces of the electrodes and the porous structures of the pump. The long-term accumulation of deposited residues can be avoided by periodically causing the pump to operate at maximum flow for brief periods. When the flow is increased to the maximum, the liquid phase fills the entire cooling loop, allowing the deposited materials to be dissolved back into solution, thereby recapturing the accumulated residue. This process is called a wash-thru, and depends on the feature of the pump that allows rapid adjustment of flow rate by increase of the potential difference applied to the electrodes of the pump. By performing a wash-thru operation with the pump 300 for a short time (e.g. 1 sec every 1000 seconds) deposited residues in the cooling loop may be recaptured into the fluid. This facilitates long-term operation of the system 100.
The use of electrolytes is critical to maintain long-term performance of the pump 300 to be maintained (by stabilizing surface chemistry) and to reduce the voltage drop between the electrodes and the pump structure (i.e., the voltage drop associated with conducting ions from the electrode surface, through the intervening electrolyte, and to the inlet pores of the pumping structure).
Other unique operational aspects of the system 100 will be further described, before a further description of the system 100 is provided.
Pump Control for Transient Chip Temperature Uniformity.
Integration of thermometers in the micro heat exchanger 200 and feedback through the controller 500 allows the system 100 to minimize temporal temperature variations on the device 50, even in the presence of transient surges in the heating load at the device 50. For the case of silicon heat exchangers, the thermometers are integrated into the heat exchanger using, for example, doped silicon thermistors, diodes, or patterned metal electrical-resistance bridges. The controller 500 provides a signal to control a power supply associated with each electroosmotic pump 300 to control the current that exists between the anode 314 and the cathode 316 based on the measured temperatures at the micro heat exchanger 200. In the case of a system 100 employing more than one pump 300, it is possible for the controller 500 and an appropriate pump 300 to respond separately to temperature surges on different regions of the device 50. This functionality takes advantage of an important characteristic of the elements of the system 100—the pressure and flow through the pumps 300 responds to changes in the applied voltage on timescales faster than 1 mS, and the specific heat of the micro heat exchangers 200 is very low. As a result, the response of the system 100 to changes in heat load or to demands for changes in operational temperature is fast enough to enable dynamic temperature control with bandwidth approaching 1 Hz. This feature is a significant improvement over existing miniature device temperature control technologies such as heat pipes, cooling fins (and/or fans), and phase change material approaches, which use methods that are incapable of adjustable heat removal based on electrical signal input (passive heat sinks, heat pipes, phase-change materials), or would have very slow temporal response because of large heat capacities and marginal ability to modify the heat transfer coefficients (fans).
Micro Heat Exchanger Design to Minimize Chip Temperature and Temperature Gradients.
The micro heat exchanger 200 enables design innovations such as in-situ temperature sensing to minimize the maximum and average chip temperature for a given flowrate, even considering large spatial variations of the heat flux from the device 50. These innovation opportunities include the integration of doped silicon thermistors, which allow the controller 500 to respond to local changes in temperature, as will be described hereinafter. Also, the micro heat exchanger 200 provides the opportunity to tailor the channel dimensions and spatial density to vary the effective thermal resistance across the area of the device 50, thereby minimizing temperature gradients resulting from differing heat fluxes. Design and optimization of microchannels in silicon can be achieved using a one-dimensional model for two-phase boiling flow in channels, also further described hereinafter. The effective channel dimensions in the regions of greatest heat flux are reduced using local high-surface area structures, such as internal fins, or regions with smaller cross sectional areas 50, to augment the local thermal conductance. Furthermore, the flow direction and location of the region of high heat flux with respect to the fluid inlet can be used to minimize the local temperature. Since the pressure decreases continuously as the fluid moves through the channels, and the temperature of the two-phase liquid-vapor mixture depends uniquely on pressure, increasing the separation between the fluid inlet and the high heat flux region can strongly reduce its temperature. Groups of channels flowing in opposite directions on the device 50 can also be advantageously used to achieve greater temperature uniformity.
The development of optimal design methodologies based on detailed thermal modeling allows the design of microchannel geometries that are customized to match the heat distribution on a particular device 50. This aspect of the invention allows the total performance of the system 100 to be optimized with respect to a specific device characteristic. This aspect of the invention is further enabled by the ability to operate multiple independent cooling loops through a single micro heat exchanger 200. The design and fabrication capabilities for silicon fabrication would allow multiple fluidic manifolds to be co-located on a single substrate and to be operated simultaneously so as to achieve independent thermal regulation of different regions of the device 50.
Working Fluid Design and Optimization for the Loop System.
Targeted device 50 temperature is further reached using tailored working fluid chemistries and operating pressures. Both the chemistry and operating pressure influence the boiling temperature, which determines the device 50 temperature at which the system 100 achieves the lowest thermal resistance. These design and optimization strategies are significant in that they also affect the operation of the catalytic recombiner 326 illustrated in
Fluid chemistries that can be used include, but are not limited to, deionized water (DI), aqueous buffer solutions, organic liquids (e.g., acetonitrile and methanol), and mixers of organics and buffers for the working fluid of the pump 300. Optimized mixtures of the working fluids that achieve the required heat transfer needs and yet optimize pump performance and reliability. Key issues in the optimization of the working fluid mixture include long-term pH control of working fluid (which directly affects pump surface charge density and therefore pump pressure and flow rate performance). Although pure De-Ionized water often offers the best thermodynamic efficiency for heat removal, the operation of the system may impose additional requirements. For example, high-flow rate performance of the pump may be achieved by increasing the conductivity of the fluid beyond what is available from DI water, for example by adding buffer to the water. In addition, additives in the aqueous solution can help to preserve the surface characteristics of the electrodes and the porous pumping structure. For example, increases in the conductivity of the working fluid has the negative effect of increasing the Joule heat dissipation of the pump 300, but also has the beneficial effect of decreasing the thickness of the layer of charged ions in the solution in the porous pumping structures, which increases the pressure and flow provided by the pump. In addition, increases in the conductivity of the fluid serve to reduce the potential drop from the electrodes to the surfaces of the porous pumping structure. This is important, because only the potential difference across the surfaces of the porous structure contribute to pumping action. Potential drop from the anode to one surface and from the other surface to the cathode are wasted.
Before further describing in detail the loop system 100, certain of the advantages that it provides will mentioned. These advantages allow the system 100 to compete with conventional heat dissipation systems as mentioned above, including heat pipe and vapor chamber technology in laptops and hand-held devices and traditional metal fin-array heat sinks used in desktop computers. Due to major improvements including the increased peak heat load, the minimal volume at the device 50, and the possibility for transient and spatial reductions of temperature variations, the various aspects of the loop system 100 described herein will also enable continued scaling and performance improvements of electronic systems.
Much Larger Peak Heat Loads for a Given Device Volume.
A significant advantage of the system 100 according to the present invention is the ability to handle much higher heating loads than conventional devices using a much smaller volume. Because the cooling loop is pumped, the pressure drop and flowrate of a given loop system 100 design can be tailored to the targeted heating load between 5 W (hand held) and 1 kW (parallel-processor desktops). While an electroosmotic pump 300, if used, adds a small additional volume to the loop system 100, each pump 300 is extremely compact (smaller than any competing pump) and offers tremendous performance benefits. Specifically, the pumping of the liquid phase allows the system 100 to remove total heating powers far in excess of those handled by heat pipes and vapor chambers of comparable volume. The additional power required by the pump 300 is small compared to the power required by the device 50 and is therefore not a significant burden for the battery life where the application is a portable electronic system.
Minimal Volume at Chip Backside.
From the perspective of system miniaturization and multi-chip integration, the micro heat exchanger 200, in particular microchannel heat sinks with thickness below 1 millimeter, has a tremendous advantage because it occupies less space specifically at the backside of the device 50 than conventional techniques. This is significant, particularly since the semiconductor industry is targeting increased integration of multiple chips into a single device 50 package, for which minimal separation between chips is critical for reducing signal delays. For single-chip systems, the minimal volume of the micro heat exchanger 200 at the chip backside is critical because it enables miniaturization of the dimensions in the case of electronic system. For a metal, fin-array heat sink, the design can accommodate an enormous volume attached directly to the device 50 backside. This large volume requirement may prevent dense packaging of circuits, especially for applications where placement of a multitude of circuits within the product is required, such as servers. In other applications, such as laptop computers, there is very limited space above the microprocessor, and fin array heat sinks suitable for power in excess of 50 W are difficult to accommodate. Conventional designs cannot accommodate such volumes, which inhibits integration of multiple chips closely into a single package and impedes system miniaturization, particularly for compact desktop computers.
Design Flexibility.
The preferred pump 300 enables design flexibility, particularly since it allows heat to be rejected over a relatively large area far away from the device 50, attached only using fluidic tubes, and can be disposed in a variety of locations, depending upon the system being implemented. For example, while
Transient and Localized Response to On-Chip Temperature Variations.
In contrast to heat pipes, vapor chambers, and metal fin-array heat sinks, the loop system 100 can respond to transient surges in heating (through, for example, control of the electroosmotic pump 300) and to spatial variations of heating intensity and temperature rise on the device 50 (through, for example, microchannel design and the separate control of pumps 300 dedicated to microchannels on regions of the device 50). This allows the system 100 to provide much better temperature uniformity in time and space for the device 50.
Lack of Thermal Mismatch Between Chip and Heat Sink.
A major reliability concern for heat pipes and vapor chambers is the mismatch of thermal expansion coefficients between the device 50 and the heat spreader, which makes direct contact with the device 50. In certain embodiments of the closed loop system 100 as described further herein using silicon micro heat exchangers 200 along with silicon chip devices 50, there will be no thermal expansion mismatch between the chip and the heat sink. This benefit can be exploited through the use of novel attachment materials, such as thin alloy solders, rather than traditional metal-filled organic materials, thereby substantially reducing the overall system thermal resistance.
With the above overview having been provided, as well as several advantages having been discussed, a further detailed description of the system 100, and various aspects and methods is set forth hereinafter.
It may be important for the output of the pump 300 to be directed towards the inlet of the micro-heat exchanger 200. The micro-heat exchanger 200 is typically physically attached to the device 50 that heats up, and will be the highest temperature point in the loop. At the outlet of the micro-heat exchanger 200, the fluid/vapor mixture travels down a flexible tube 110 towards the macro-heat exchanger 400. One important feature is that this tubing can be centimeters in length for some applications, and as much as a meter in other applications. These long lengths are possible because of the high pressure capability of the pumps to be used in this invention. The pump 300 is capable of producing very high pressure, which can be used to force the fluid/vapor mixture down a considerable length of tubing, thereby allowing the macro heat exchanger 400 to be located based on all the other factors that govern the design of the system 100.
Within the macro-heat exchanger 400, the fluid/vapor mixture condenses completely to a fluid, and travels through the second length 112 of flexible tubing. This length 112 can also be very long, allowing placement of the pump 300 near the micro heat exchanger 200 through the use of a third length 114 of flexible tubing as shown, or even integrated with the pump 300 integrated with the micro heat exchanger 200, as described further hereinafter with respect to
The controller 500 is understood to be an electronic circuit that takes input signals from thermometers in the micro heat exchanger 200, or from thermometers in the device 50 being cooled, which signals are transmitted along signal lines 120. The controller 500, based upon the input signals regulates the current through the pump 300 by applying signals to the power supply associated with the pump 300 along signal lines 122 to achieve the desired thermal performance. The pump flow rate is strictly proportional to the applied voltage, so this control algorithm can be a simple proportional controller 500, or may incorporate more sophisticated methodologies. Because the specific heat of the micro heat exchanger 200 is small, and the response time of the pump 300 is fast, the time response of the thermal control system can be very fast, and enables implementation of a robust, accurate controller 500 with fast dynamic response.
The embodiment illustrated in
Micro-Heat Exchanger 200 Design and Optimization.
The micro-heat exchanger 200 shown in
The arrangement of the microchannels 220 may be adapted to the distribution of the expected heat sources on the device 50, as shown in
One particular advantage of the high pressure capability of the EO pumps 300 is that channel 220 arrangements do not need to be designed to minimize pressure drop and maximize temperature uniformity at the same time. The temperature uniformity can be optimized for a given device 50, and the EO pump 300 is then tailored to provide adequate pressure and flow to operate the micro heat exchanger 200 and the macro heat exchanger 400. Channels 220 can be etched into only layer 210, as shown by channel 220A of the 2-layer bonded micro heat exchanger 200, or may be present on both layers 210 and 214, as is shown in the channel portions 220B and 220C that are etched into layers 210 and 214, respectively. Alignment of layers 210 and 214 can create additional geometric cross sections for the channels 220, as appropriate for minimizing the temperature variations within the device 50.
The two layers 210 and 214 shown in
The placement of temperature sensors, also referred to as thermometers, within the microheat exchanger 200 is another important factor, and there are unique advantages to the placement of these thermometers laterally with respect to the microchannels 220 and the heat sources of the device 50, and there are advantages to placement of the thermometers at different vertical locations as will be described.
As illustrated, sensors 250-1 and 250-2 are located between fluid paths corresponding to the same fluidic microchannel paths 220-1 and 220-2, respectively. Sensor 250-1, however, is disposed between portions of the microchannel 220-1 that have varying cross-sectional areas, whereas sensor 250-2 is disposed between portions of the microchannel 220-2 that have consistent cross-sectional areas. Thus, sensors 250-1 and 250-2 located near the channels will be most sensitive to heat transfer variations in the channels, and will respond most quickly to changes there.
Further, sensor 250-3 is disposed between the two different fluidic microchannel paths 220-1 and 220-2, which allows controller 500 to vary either or both of the flow rates within the fluidic microchannel paths 220-1 and 220-2 to change the temperature of the region corresponding thereto. The placement of the sensor relative to the various microchannel paths results in the ability to adjust the flow rates through several channels in order to achieve specific temperatures at any location in between the channel.
Further, by placing the sensor in proximity to a particular channel, it is possible to measure and control the temperature of the fluid moving through that channel, and therefore achieve approximate control over temperature in the region upstream or downstream along that channel. Finally, the separation between the channel and the temperature sensor has an effect on the time it takes for the sensor to respond to a change in fluid flow, and can allow fast or slow feedback control of the temperature in this location in the system. Thus, sensors 250-4 and 250-5 are shown further from the channel 220 and closer to device 50, whereas sensor 250-6 is illustrated further from both the channel 220 and the device 50. Thus, sensors 250-4 and 250-5 placed at the bonding interface to the device 50 are the most sensitive to the local heating sources, and will respond most quickly to changes in temperature due to changes in heat dissipation in the device 50, whereas sensor 250-6 will provide an indication of temperature change on a more global level over periods of time that are greater.
Since one objective of this invention is to provide active feedback-controlled cooling of the device, the use of temperature, pressure and/or flow sensors to provide input signals to the controller 500 is important. The measured parameter (for example, temperature) is compared to the desired parameter (for example, temperature), and the differences are analyzed by the feedback control algorithm to produce changes in the pump control voltages. As an example, if the temperature at a specific location in the device 50 exceeds the desired regulation temperature, the controller 500 will increase the voltage to the pump 300 that provides fluid flow to a channel near to the thermometer, thereby increasing the heat transfer to the fluid in that region, and cooling that region of the device 50. Simple feedback control applies a voltage to the pumps 300 that are proportional to the difference between desired and measured temperature. This is often referred to as proportional control. A disadvantage of simple proportional control is that large changes in the control output (pump voltage) can only be generated after large errors in temperature are produced. More advanced control strategies attempt to derive information from the temperature, the rate change in temperature, and perhaps from more than a single thermometer in order to produce a control signal that regulates temperatures more accurately. Such controllers 500 are easier to implement with temperature signals recorded at several locations, such as near the device 50, near the microchannel 220, and at the top surface of the microheat exchanger 200, as describe above. These temperature measurements from disparate locations relative to the device 50 and the microchannels 200 provide information to the controller 500 at different rates, and with different sensitivities to different local influences, leading to an overall control strategy that offers much better accuracy and stability in the face of changes in heat input. Therefore, providing input (for example, thermal) from several different locations within the microheat exchanger 200 is preferable.
The thickness of layers, such as layers 210 and 214, is also a consideration. These layers are generally no thinner than 0.1 mm, and may be as thick as several mm, depending on the material and manufacturing process. For example, if these layers are fabricated from silicon or glass wafers, the typical thickness of such wafers are near 0.5 mm, although they may be thinned to 0.1 mm to allow the total thickness of the microheat exchanger to be minimized. If the layers are fabricated from ceramics, the layer thickness is typically 1 mm or greater. If the layers are fabricated from metals, near or greater than 1 mm are typical.
In many applications, the device to be cooled is a silicon integrated circuit, so there are some important advantages to a microheat exchanger fabricated from silicon. Specifically, the thermal expansion coefficients of the device and the heat exchanger would be matched, allowing the elimination of differential thermal expansion-induced stress at the interface between the device and the heat exchanger. In the case of a silicon micro heat exchanger, microfabrication techniques can be used to achieve precise control over the paths and cross-sectional shapes and arrangements of the microchannels, and the overall dimensions of these structures can be minimized to allow very close packing of devices. Finally, an important advantage of the micro heat exchanger is that its limited thickness can allow alternate stacking of devices and cooling layers, as shown in
Macro Heat Exchanger 400 Design.
The macro heat exchanger 400 can consist of any of a number of conventional macroscopic approaches for heat rejection to the ambient. For example, the fluid can be routed through a channel in the base of a metal fin heat sink. One advantage of the system 100 is that the high-pressure capabilities of the pump 300 allow the fluidic resistance of the macro heat exchanger 400 to be high if that allows for other performance or cost advantages. So, it is possible to route the fluids through a complicated path within the macro heat exchanger 400 in order to minimize the thermal resistance without concern for the implications of increased fluid flow resistance.
An advantage that may be realized by way of the system 100 is that it is possible to design a macro heat exchanger 400 that includes a very complicated fluid flow path or paths throughout the high-surface-area structures that provide thermal contact to the air.
One preferred embodiment of the invention is to directly couple the macro heat exchanger to the exterior surfaces of the system.
As with the micro heat exchanger 200, thermal modeling as discussed further hereinafter can be used to optimize the distribution of the fluid paths 420 within the macro heat exchanger 400, including detailed design of the diameters, cross-sectional profiles, depths, shapes, densities, and other geometric parameters so as to optimize the performance of the macro heat exchanger 400.
Typically, after the heat exchangers 200 and 400 are designed for optimum thermal performance, the performance requirements of the pump 300 may be determined, and its characteristics can then be independently optimized. One feature of the present invention is that the capabilities of the pump 300 may be tailored to allow independent optimization of the heat exchangers 200 and 400, thereby producing substantially improved overall system thermal performance.
Electro Osmotic Pump 300 Design and Fabrication.
The preferred electroosmotic pump 300 in this system can be produced from a variety of materials and by a number of fabrication methods. Other pumps, however, such as electrostatically-actuated thin membrane pumps, piezoelectric pumps, electrohydrodynamic pumps, ultrasonic pumps and others may also be used and certain advantages of the present invention still would be obtained. Preferably, however, the pump is an electroosmotic pump 300, where the pump structure includes a liquid-filled chamber 213 with electrodes 314 and 316 on either side of a porous structure 310, as shown in
In order for the preferred electroosmotic pump 300 to generate the pressure and flow rates desired, it is preferable that the pump 300 include the following components:
When space is a design constraint or consideration, the dimensions of the chamber are chosen to minimize the size and mass of the pump, but to provide a robust enclosure. The enclosure must be fabricated from a material with insulating surfaces, so that there is no current from the cathode or anode into the chamber surfaces. For chambers made from acrylic, the overall dimensions are several cm, and the thickness of the walls is 1-3 mm. All of these dimensions may be reduced to allow pumps with overall dimensions of less than 1 cm, and even as small as 1-2 mm; these pumps feature chamber thicknesses near 1 mm, and down to 0.1 mm respectively.
The material of the porous structure 310 should have a high electroosmotic mobility with respect to the working fluid, and provide mechanical integrity necessary to withstand the high differential pressure that will occur.
Embodiments that contain these elements of the pump 300 that are appropriate for closed-loop operation of a fluidic cooling system 100 will now be described. These descriptions include details as to the formation of the entire pump structure, methods for attachment of electrodes to the surfaces of the porous structures, and specific examples of selected materials to form the porous structure 310.
Sintered Silica Pump Fabrication Process.
One possible method for producing such pumping elements is to use a packed bed of silica particles as the porous structure 310. Various processes for fabricating the sintered particle pumping media have been developed and are well-known to those skilled in the art.
The first process is to centrifuge a silica-water slurry and decant off the water, dry the cake, slice into ˜1 mm disk sections, and sinter. This works well for particles having a dimension of at least 1-micron.
The second process is to collect particles from an aqueous slurry by filtration, as shown in
A third method of collecting silica particles in a cake by electrophoretically compacting the silica particles from an aqueous slurry can also produce a suitably structured porous element 310. This process is similar to that described above and in
Key advantages of this general fabrication approach are controlled shape of the frit, controlled pore size, optimization of the flowrate and pressure, and simpler, more efficient surface chemistry. All of these advantages lead to more reliable operation of the EO pumps 300, and very inexpensive fabrication using inexpensive and widely-available materials.
Sintered Glass Frits Fabrication Process
Another pump fabrication process is based on use of commercially-available ultrafine sintered glass frits, with the resulting sintered glass frit pump 300 being illustrated in
This approach describes an alternative structural form of porous alumina, exemplified by Anopore filters. These filters are 70 microns thick and are made by anodizing aluminum sheets. This invention includes two improvements to the commercially-available anopore filters to make them suitable for EO pumps 300. The first is to use oxalic acid as the anodizing medium. The resultant mixed surface oxide-oxalate can be calcined to form only the oxide that will have a simpler surface chemical characteristic. The conversion of oxalates to oxides is a well-know ceramic technology. The second improvement is to anodize substantially thicker aluminum layers to increase the pore length to several hundred microns, thus increasing the hydraulic resistance and maximum pressure the pump 300 can generate. The thicker porous films will also be mechanically much stronger than the existing filter structures.
Key advantages of all the above-mentioned approaches over existing approaches for the formation of porous structures that could be used as porous structure 310 include formation of an optimum flow structure of parallel pores which reduces the “tortuosity”, formation of pumping structures are very flat, ensuring that deposited metal film electrodes will be interconnected, and low cost since 25-mm diameter filters retail for $1 after a polypropylene supporting structure has been (thermally) bonded.
The electroosmotic pump 300 described herein offers unique capabilities for the generation of large volume flow and large pressure within a compact package that consumes little power and has no moving parts. However, this pump 300 includes some complexities that must be managed. For example, the application of potential and current to the solution in the pump 300 necessarily causes electrolysis, and the gas generated in this process must be managed. One option is to simply let the gas escape from the system along with the pumped fluid, as is described with reference to
In general, however, it is preferable to recapture the gas, and recombine it to recover the fluid.
In some cases, the material used for the recombiner 326 catalyst suffers from reduced efficiency if it comes into contact with the fluid. In these cases, a semi-permeable membrane may be used to isolate the recombiner 326 from the liquid in the pumping chamber 312.
There are several possible material choices for the membranes 330 and 327. What is needed is a film with a dense fiber structure that allows the passage of gas while blocking the passage of water. An example material is the Gore-Tex material used in outdoor garments—these materials are known to block the passage of water while allowing the passage of vapor.
Another significant embodiment of the EO pump 300 is the use of more than a single porous structure 310 to generate flow to the micro heat exchanger 200.
Combinations that include more than a pair of pumping structures are also possible. The use of a pair is a preferred embodiment because it is possible to position a single pair of pumping structures in close proximity to one another, allowing a 2× flowrate pump with little additional total pump volume or mass or cost. The inclusion of a second pump enables additional scenarios in which the two halves of the pump are used independently to achieve complicated flow control.
Microfabricated Slit Pump.
The micromachined slit pump 300C illustrated in
inlet 372 and outlet 374 chambers. Deeper recesses are formed to provide inlet 372 and outlet 374 chambers, and to allow placement of electrodes 314 and 316 therein. Microfabricated electroosmotic pumps 300C typically generate fluid flows of less than 1 mL/min because the total cross-sectional area of the fluid pathways is substantially less than that of other versions of the
EO pump 300. The missing flow can be recovered by providing a number of pumps 300C operating in parallel on the same substrate.
Aerojel Pumping Element
This approach relies on an alternative structural form of porous silica, called an aerogel. The key advantages of this material for formation of EO pumps 300 is the very high porosity, so it has a much higher electroosmotic flowrate and much lower mass (weight). Also, there is potential for casting of the aerogels into desired shapes; possibly onto electrode structures. These materials can also withstand high temperature processing.
Optimization of the Working Fluid of the Pump.
Water, preferably De-Ionized Water (“DI”) water, is the current working fluid for electroosmotic pumps 300. In addition to the excellent thermal properties such as a high latent heat of vaporization, water also supports electroosmosis and its electrolysis products, hydrogen and oxygen gas, can be conveniently recombined with a catalyst.
The performance of pump 300 has been optimized by varying the composition of the aqueous working fluid. An example of such optimization is shown in
It may be important, however, that the electrolyte either be electroinactive, or completely reversible, so that an electrolysis byproduct does not build up over time. For example, chloride ion electrolysis will produce chlorine gas in place of oxygen at the anode, and our catalyst probably does not recombine chlorine with hydrogen. Furthermore, the dissolved chlorine is a much more corrosive working fluid than one containing dissolved oxygen gas.
Another reason why sodium borate was chosen is that it represents two of the three main constituents of the glass material from which the porous polymer frits have been fabricated. Thus, the electrolyte also tends to suppress dissolution or transient chemical modification of the porous medium. Another similar electrolyte might be better at providing a stable, electroosmotically-active, surface to the porous medium.
Another feature of an optimized working fluid is control over pH, especially to suppress the acid-generating property of the anode compartment. The reason the suppression of low pH is important is that the electroosmotic flow dramatically decreases with lowering pH, as shown in
Integrated Systems.
The development of the individual components 200, 300, 400 and 500 of this invention has been discussed above. The present invention, in another aspect, integrates elements, particularly the micro-heat exchanger 200 and the electroosmotic pump 300, and also preferably the controller 500, into compact modules that can provide integrated thermal control. One embodiment of this invention is the development of an integrated microheat exchanger 600 as shown in
The microchannels 220 within this arrangement can be fabricated as described above. Thermometers 250 can be easily integrated either by attaching discrete miniature resistance thermometers, or by integrating thermometers within the structure by light doping of regions of the silicon structure. Lightly-doped silicon can be used to detect temperature accurately by measurement of the resistance, or by formation of a current-biased diode, and measurement of the forward voltage drop. In either case, these thermometer elements 250 can be fabricated using the same lithography, deposition and etching tools used for formation of the microchannels 220 within any standard MEMS foundry. These thermometers 250 enable local, accurate measurements of the temperature near the device 50, and allow the pump pressure and fluid flow rate to be adjusted to regulate the device temperature within specified limits.
Furthermore, an EO pump 300 with a microfabricated structure can also be integrated, typically a smaller EO pump due to size limitations. The micromachined “slit-pump” 300 C described above in
Other designs of the closed-loop cooling system 100 are also contemplated.
In another variation, which can also be extended to use more than the single pump illustrated, the fluid from any single pump 300 may be divided into more than one flow path before entering the device 50, or after entering the device 50, and that the fraction of the flow into these separate pathways might be altered by valves or other methods of dividing flow.
In addition to the closed loop cooling architectures described previously, an embodiment of the invention uses an open loop configuration in which the cooling fluid is drawn from a reservoir and exhausted away from the system after a single pass through the loop.
In a specific open-loop embodiment as shown in
Another advantageous feature of this invention is tailoring the geometries of the microchannels 220, such as illustrated in
In addition, it may be advantageous to design for a larger cross section for the regions of the microchannel 220 where a mixture of fluid and vapor is expected, because the volume increase associated with the transformation from liquid to vapor causes great acceleration and a resulting increased velocity. In this case, a design similar to that shown in
Velocity and efficiency of the heat transfer can be increased in other ways, including introduction of extra structures 270 in the channel 220 in the region where increased velocity is desired.
A specific advantage of microfabrication methods for fabrication of channels 220 in the micro heat exchanger is that the introduction of small design features such as a tapered channel 220T having variable width or using structures 270 inside of a channel 220 is possible. Minimum feature sizes near 1 micrometer are possible, enabling very precise control of the shapes of the channels 220 and the partial blocking structures 270. Aside from adjusting the width of the channel 220 or inserting partial blocking structures 270, it is also possible to design channels with variable depth, thereby adjusting the channel cross-sectional area continuously without changing the relative density of microchannels 220.
In addition to geometries for microheat exchangers 220 based on substantially planar microchannels as previously discussed, fluid distribution that assists in heat transfer from the device 50 can occur from further cooling layers 230-n such as shown in
One particularly interesting embodiment for distribution of cooling fluid is illustrated in
Depending on the pressure difference across the openings 276 in the layer 214, and the size of those openings 276, the fluid passing to the chamber 278 may form miniature jets, which would have several important advantages. Generally, the formation of the jets is governed by the Reynolds number of the flow. For jet orifices that are too large, the mass flow produced by the electroosmotic pump will result in too small of a velocity so that the orifice flow Reynolds number is too small to achieve a jet (characterized by separated flow at the orifice exit). For jet orifices that are too small, viscous stresses dissipate the pressure energy generated by the pump and again result in Reynolds numbers that are too small. There should therefore be an optimum jet orifice diameter to achieve relatively high Reynolds number (even if only laminar) jet flow. The formation of jets, or more preferably an array of jets, enhances the efficiency of the heat transfer of the fluid in the chamber 278 because of the increased velocity and presence of inertial flow instabilities in this chamber 278. In addition, the jets cause the fluid in this chamber 278 to be well-mixed, thereby helping even out any temperature gradients.
In addition to the embodiments described above that bring the fluids into contact with the device 50 surface, other embodiments of the micro heat exchanger 200 can use a geometric modification to the surface of the device 50 to obtain more surface area contact.
During operation of the cooling loop, it is possible that certain elements of the loop may begin to malfunction. For example, the pressure across the microheat exchanger 200 or macroheat exchanger 400 might begin to increase, indicating a build-up of deposited materials. The appropriate response to this condition is a wash-through, achieved by increasing the flow through the pump 300 for a brief period. The buildup of pressure throughout the loop might also indicate an accumulation of gas from electrolysis at the anode 314 or cathode 316 within the pump 300, and a possible brief failure of the gas recombination elements of the pump 300. One appropriate response to this condition is to reduce the pump operating current for some period of time, typically in the range of a few tens of seconds, or even to reverse the potential to the pump 300, for roughly the same period of time, to reverse the flow of gases. Another appropriate response to this condition is to heat the recombiner 326. In order to detect the above and other conditions indicating a malfunction or a potential malfunction, sensors of pressure, temperature, or current can be used to diagnose certain aspects of the condition of the cooling loop, or of specific elements of the cooling loop. These sensors may be implemented within the system in the manner described above with respect to the temperature sensors. Similarly, the controller 500 may be employed to detect these conditions.
It should also be noted that in the above descriptions, the controller 500 is illustrated for purposes of convenience as a distinct device in the system. There are also other possibilities where the functions of the controller 500 can take place, including the following.
As shown in
As shown in
Another embodiment of the invention uses the various components described above in what is conventionally known as a heat spreader. Rather than moving heat from one location to a distinctly separate location, the present invention can be used to pump fluid to efficiently spread heat from a localized source to a larger surface area, with an advantage being to overcome the finite thermal conductivity of a solid structure. In practical terms, rather than using both a microheat exchanger 200 and a macroheat exchanger 400 as described in previous embodiments, a single heat spreader 150, as illustrated in
In addition to embodiments in which heat is transferred via a heat spreader 150 directly to a mounting structure. As shown in
System Heat Transfer Modeling and Optimization.
Another useful aspect of this invention is the use of detailed computer modeling of heat transfer to simulate the heat rejection capabilities of a specific system design at a detailed level, and the use of this simulation capability to iterate the design details so as to maximize overall system performance. For example, it is possible to simulate the behavior of a real heat-generating device 50, including the spatial and temporal distribution of the heat generation within the device 50.
Thermal Design CAD
Overview of Thermal Design CAD Objectives.
The present invention involves usage of a thermal design CAD tool that enables users to complete the layout of a microheat exchanger 200 that will achieve optimal thermal uniformity for the particular heat-generating device 50 of that user. This CAD tool includes modules for calculating pressure, velocity, heat transfer rates, and temperature variations for a given device heat generation profile and a give microchannel geometry. The building blocks of this system are described, and the functional description is then provided. The CAD tool plays a central role in optimizing microchannel geometries to improve the figures of merit of the resulting heat sink, specifically, to reduce temperature variations and reduce the average thermal resistance.
Heat Transfer Model
Detailed modeling of the heat transfer within the device 50 to the surface, through the interface to the heat rejection structure (micro heat exchanger 200), from this structure to the fluids passing through it, and then from these same fluids to the macro heat exchanger 400 and to the environment can all be carried out. These heat transfer characteristics are specific to the shape and arrangements of the channels within each structure, and depend on the pressure and flow generated by the EO pump 300. This complete system model allows the designer to introduce variations in the details of the system design, such as changes in the channel geometry (for example, arrangement, spacing, diameter, shape) and to compute the effect of these change on the system performance. Specifically, the calculations determine the overall thermal resistance from the device to ambient, spatial variations in the temperature of the device, and temporal variations in the temperature of the device.
The modeling is based on a computationally-simple, 1D approach. This 1D approach is highly advantageous because of its computational efficiency, in particular compared to more detailed multi-phase simulation approaches. The 1D approximate approach is therefore efficient for channel optimization, which requires many sequential computations of the performance of channels of multiple shapes and configurations. The simulation approach invented here numerically solves the energy equations for heat conduction in the micro heat exchanger solid wall (Silicon or metal) and for fluid advection, with boundary conditions dictated by heat loss to the environment surrounding the heat exchanger. Inlet and outlet conditions for the fluid are linked to the outlet state of fluid leaving the EO pump and the inlet of the heat rejector, respectively. The simulation uses the finite volume method and considers the temperature and pressure dependence of the liquid and vapor properties based on correlations to tabulated data for the working fluid.
Heat transfer into the fluid and pressure drop along the channel are determined using heat transfer coefficients and wall skin friction coefficients. These coefficients are either obtained from empirical fits to data or from exact solutions for two phase flow in channels. The simulation considers the spatially varying heat generation along the length of a given channel, and, when performed for multiple channels in parallel, considers lateral variations in heat flux as well. For any given channel, the simulation determines the device 50 temperature distribution as a function
of the heat generation rate, channel shape, and fluid input flowrate and temperature. The simulation can model the effects of various cross-sectional shapes and paths. The simulation can be based either on the homogeneous or the separated flow assumptions.
The simulation numerically solves energy equations for heat conduction in the silicon wall and convection by the fluid, with boundary conditions dictated by the heat loss to the environment. The simulation uses the finite volume method and considers the temperature and pressure dependence of the liquid and vapor properties based on correlations to tabulated data. The simulation is one-dimensional in the direction along the channel and uses average local temperatures for the solid wall and the fluid, Tw and Tf, respectively. The energy equations are:
where z is the coordinate along the channel, Aw is the channel wall cross-sectional area, p is the perimeter of the channel cross section, and w is the pitch of one channel. The fin effectiveness, η, accounts for the temperature variation normal to the heat sink within the local channel walls. The thermal conductivity of silicon is kw, mY is the mass flow rate, and hconv is the convection coefficient for heat transfer between the channel wall and the fluid. The fluid enthalpy per unit mass, if, for two-phase flow is expressed in terms of local fluid quality x, which is the mass fraction of the vapor phase, using
if=(1−x)il+xiv (3)
where subscripts 1 and v represent for liquid and vapor phase in two-phase flow, respectively.
Equation (1) accounts for heat conduction along silicon wall in the first term, convection heat transfer rate in the second term, and the natural convection heat loss to the environment using the resistance Renv in the third term. Radiation heat loss is neglected due to its very small magnitude. The fluid flow equation (2) relates the change of the average enthalpy density of the fluid against the heat transfer rate into the fluid from the channel walls.
Uniformity of temperature on the device 50 is critical for reliable performance of ICs. Regions of larger heat generation on a microprocessor chip device, for example, lead to higher local temperatures and lead to the onset of failure when the remainder of the chip is well below the threshold temperature for failure. Thus, the ability to achieve uniform chip temperature is an important qualification of any cooling solutions. Moreover, an advanced cooling solution should demonstrate its potential to solve temperature uniformity problems associated with hotspots within an actual chip, where local heat generation rates far exceed the average on the chip, possibly resulting in dramatic increases in local chip temperature.
Building Block: Flow/PressureModel
Two flow models are developed for the two-phase regime. A homogeneous flow model assumes that the liquid and vapor have the same velocity at every position z. The other approach is annular two-phase flow model, which assumes that a thin, slow-moving liquid film surrounds a rapidly moving core of vapor. The data of Stanley et al (R. S. Stanley, R. F. Barron, and T. A. Ameel, “Two-Phase Flow In Microchannels”, DSC-Vol. 62/HTD-Vol. 34 MEMS, ASME (1997), pp. 143-152.). for heat flux and friction coefficient for two-phase flow along channels of comparable dimensions lend more support to the homogeneous flow model. The pressure distribution is governed by
for the homogeneous model and by
for the annular model, respectively. The density of the liquid-vapor mixture is ρ, ρv is the density of vapor phase, f is the globally averaged friction factor, and D is the channel hydraulic diameter. The mass flux m″ is related to the mass flow rate mY by m″=mY/Ac, where Ac is the cross sectional area of the flow passage. The liquid film thickness is δ, τi is the shear stress at liquid-vapor interface in annular flow model, and α is void fraction, which is the ratio of the vapor flow cross-sectional area to the total flow cross-sectional area.
This detailed numerical modeling as described can be used to predict temperature distributions within microchannel heat exchange structures, and can be used within an iterative design process to optimize the performance of these microchannel designs to achieve particular system performance objectives.
Building Block: Coupling the Heat Transfer and the Flow/Pressure Models
Modeling enables optimization of channel positions, relative flowrates, local-cross-sectional shapes, and the controlled placement of extended surfaces within channels, all to achieve temperature uniformity. These modeling steps include:
In particular, the pressure distribution within the heat exchanger governs the distribution of the saturation temperature of the two-phase mixture, which is then used to control the wall temperature considering a given heat flux. For example, the wall at the downstream end of the channel could be maintained at a lower temperature than the wall of the upstream end, even considering a dramatic increase in the heat flux at the downstream end. The variation of the saturation temperature would govern the wall temperature distribution in this case, rather than the local heat flux.
Two-phase microchannel cooling has demonstrated more efficiency and better chip temperature uniformity than single-phase liquid cooling, benefiting from the latent heat of the working fluid. However, both experimental data and simulations have shown that a peak in the temperature of the microheat exchanger appears spatially along the channel at a location immediately upstream from the onset of boiling. This temperature peak is associated in part with superheating of the microchannel wall and can result in a chip temperature difference of more than 200° C. Superheating can arise whenever ordinary nucleate boiling is prevented. The wall temperature peak is also associated with a reduction of the heat transfer coefficient in the vicinity of boiling onset, owing to the transition from purely liquid to two-phase flow.
In microchannels, nucleate boiling can be inhibited because of the absence of bubble nucleation sites, or because the microchannels are too small for detached bubbles to propagate along with liquid. For example, if the detached bubble sizes are as large as the channel diameter, the liquid flow can be blocked by a bubble, and the conversion from liquid to vapor can all take place at this interface. One unfortunate result of such a situation is a reduction of the heat transfer coefficient downstream in the channel, and a possibility for a very large temperature rise at the microchannel wall.
In the course of developing this invention, measurements to map the boiling regimes for microchannels have been made, and it has been determined what boiling regime is to be expected for water passing through a channel of a given diameter at a given velocity. For fluids moving through channels of diameters larger than 100 microns at velocities less than 1 m/s, it has been found that the boiling and heat transfer are completely described using a homogeneous flow assumption (liquid and vapor travel at the same velocity). Within this constraint, the heat transfer is described with reasonable accuracy by finite volume models utilizing Kandlikar's correlation to determine heat transfer from the microchannel walls to the fluid. Therefore, this may be used to provide accurate computations of the heat transfer from the walls to the fluid at any location in a microchannel.
The simulation by finite volume models utilizing Kandlikar's correlation addresses, as an example, the design of a microchannel heat exchanger targeting a heat removal of 200 W from a 20 mm×20 mm area. The water flowrate is 10-20 ml/min, which yields 0.5-0.25 mass quality at the exit of the heat sink (this is the fraction of the exiting fluid that is in the liquid state). For a given chip dimensions, the number of channels is determined by the requirement for constant channel wall thickness of 100 μm and by the microchannel width. In an optimal design, the width may vary from inlet to outlet so as to obtain advantageous performance. In the design now being described, water is used as the working fluid with an inlet temperature of 69° C., although it is understood that many variations on working fluids and their inlet temperatures exist.
Building Block: Exit Pressure Optimization
One parameter that can be adjusted is the exit pressure of the microheat exchanger, with the specific purpose of tailoring the chip temperature to the specifications required for reliability. If this pressure is the same as atmospheric pressure, the liquid-vapor transition in the absence of superheating is 100° C. However, this transition temperature may be reduced by causing, for example, the exit pressure of the microheat exchanger to be below atmospheric pressure. This approach may be practical in a closed loop, which is isolated from atmospheric conditions at every point. For many applications, there are advantages to reducing the transition temperature below 100° C.—for example, integrated circuits generally require peak operating temperature at the transistor to be below 125° C. Since there is some thermal resistance between the transistors and the heat exchanger, there will be a temperature rise from the heat exchanger to the transistor. The ratio between the temperature rise and the power being dissipated is called the thermal resistance. For a given thermal resistance, there will be a maximum power associated with transistor operation below 125° C. and microheat exchanger operation at 100° C. However, if the microheat exchanger can be operated at 75° C., twice as much power can be dissipated while keeping the transistors below 125° C. Therefore, the operation of fluid loops with sub-atmospheric pressure at the outlet of the microheat exchanger is a very useful method.
For example, we consider a cooling loop as shown in
In order to achieve low exit pressure, it may be important to tailor the shape of the microchannels so as to avoid flow resistance that would lead to large pressure increases for fluid flow through the microheat exchanger.
These calculations of average temperature and pressure do not take into account the variation of heat transfer efficiency with channel geometry. It is generally expected that the heat transfer will be improved by designs which cause higher fluid velocity (such as narrow channel diameters), or by designs that increase the surface area of the channel that comes into contact with the fluid (such as by introducing fins or changing to longer, narrower channels). In general, these changes result in increased flow resistance, so there may be a conflict between the designs that achieve reduced exit pressure (and reduced operating temperature), and those that achieve improved heat transfer efficiency. Of course, an optimal design achieves a balance between the objectives of reducing the operating temperature of the microheat exchanger and reducing the thermal resistance between the fluid and the microheat exchanger. Optimization is typically achieved iteratively.
Building Block: Heat Distribution
In addition to the issues raised by the effects of pressure and channel geometries, there are complications that arise if the heat generated by the device is not distributed uniformly. For example, microprocessors exhibit “hot-spots”, where the power dissipation is concentrated.
For case 1, 25% of total power is applied at upstream half of the channels and 75% is concentrated at upstream half for case 2. The highest wall temperature occurs near the inlet in each case due to the small convective heat transfer coefficient in the slowly-moving liquid phase region. For left-to-right flow, the increased fluid velocity (due to conversion of some fluid to vapor) leads to increased heat transfer efficiency just as the fluid is approaching the hot spot on the right half of the chip. For right-to-left flow, the low heat transfer coefficient at the inlet results in increased device temperature at the inlet, and more non-uniform temperature profile. Also, case (1) has a lower pressure drop, lower average chip temperature, and more uniform temperature field than case (2). An interesting result for case (1) is that the highest temperature is not located at higher heat flux region but near inlet, which is one of the powerful merits of the two-phase microchannel heat sinks. Accordingly, it may be important to control the locations of the single-phase region and the 2-phase region relative to the hot spots of the device, and the opportunity for increased uniformity that can be obtained with certain designs.
Using the CAD tool, iterations involving adjustment to the placement of the microchannels and the direction of the flow are typically carried out to move the design iteratively towards an optimal arrangement. From the above discussion, it is apparent that the shape and diameter of the microchannels, and the direction of the flow in the microchannels may have a dramatic effect on the temperature distribution in the device.
In
Building Block: Fins
It is possible to further alter the distribution of the heat transfer in microchannels by increasing the surface area of the walls. Rather than reduce the channel diameter to achieve this effect, it may be possible to introduce additional “fins” into the channel, achieve higher thermal conductance into the fluid without dramatically increasing the pressure drop for a give flowrate. These additional fins increase the thermal contact with the fluid, and can significantly enhance the heat transfer efficiency in regions of the microchannel expected to be in the single-phase condition. For example, the microchannel inlet will almost always exhibit single-phase flow, and the previous discussion makes it clear that positioning of inlets near hotspots is undesirable because of the limited heat transfer efficiency in single-phase flow. However, this effect can be partially alleviated through the introduction of fins, which may improve the thermal conductance to the fluid in the vicinity of the hotspot. Furthermore, the temperature increase that occurs at the wall at the onset of boiling, associated with the reduction in the heat transfer coefficient, may be suppressed through the use of fins. This effect is shown in
Building Block: Enhanced Nucleation Surfaces
Boiling is known to take place at solid-liquid interfaces, and may be enhanced by the presence of a defect at those surfaces that allows formation of bubbles. Generally these are cavity-shaped defects, as the bubble is easier to form if it is not required to generate a full spherical surface of liquid-vapor interface film. Very smooth surfaces exhibit superheating—meaning a suppression of boiling until temperatures well above the nominal transition temperature because of the energetic penalty associated with bubble formation. It is known that roughened surfaces which include a high density of cavity defects generally allow boiling without superheating. In experiments, microchannels 220 have been deliberately roughened in specific locations 221 as shown in
Implementation of the CAD Tool:
Based on the above, an integrated thermal design methodology used by the CAD tool will be described, which will consider the distribution of the power dissipation on the device, and adjust the position, shapes, and densities of the microchannels so as to achieve more optimal thermal uniformity for the device. Within this tool, various modules will compute pressure drops and phase transition temperatures, and compute heat transfer coefficients from the fluid to the microchannel walls, and compute the resulting temperature distribution across the device. The tool preferably uses a cost function based, for example, on the standard deviation of the temperature at specified points along the length of the channel and the absolute magnitude of the thermal resistance. The tool optimizes the free parameters, including fin placement, channel width and height, and the location of regions with increased nucleation surface, to maximize the quality function. The quality function may be calculated considering a nonuniform applied heat load, and thereby provide a more optimum design considering the nonuniformity.
The computation loop 902 considers the heat distribution of the device as input information, and begins with a user-input channel geometry, shown at 910. The computation loop 902 determines the flow pattern through the device in the absence of heat input, computing the pressure along the channel and the heat-transfer coefficient at every location, shown at step 912. The heat input is then added to the simulation, and a computation of the temperature distribution is carried out using the starting values of the heat transfer coefficient throughout the system, shown at step 914. Then, the temperature distribution is used to compute changes in the pressure distribution due to thermally-induced changes in viscosity, and the locations of the beginning of liquid-vapor phase transitions, and other phenomena that will have an effect on the flow-induced pressure drop, illustrated as repeating of step 912. This improved pressure distribution is then used to recompute the heat transfer coefficients, the locations of phase transitions (because the transition temperature is a function of pressure), and the overall temperature distribution of the system. This loop iterates between temperature and pressure computation until the complete solution is stable. The output of this computation loop is a final prediction of the pressure and temperature distribution for a given heat profile and microchannel geometry.
The shape perturbation manager 904 computes a “Cost Function” associated with the result of the computed thermal distribution, as shown at step 916. This cost function is preferably a scalar parameter that will reach a minimum value when the thermal uniformity of the system is optimized. The shape perturbation manager also parameterizes the microchannel geometry, shown at step 918 as “compute sensitivities” and introduces small perturbations in the dimensions and locations of the channels, shown at step 920, and re-inserts the new design into the computation loop. After completion of the computation loop with the new geometry, the cost function is recomputed at step 916, and the relationships between the cost function and the shape perturbations is determined. As a simple example, consider the case where a channel geometry is modified by increasing the channel width in one section of the system. The dependence of the cost function on this parameter will be taken as the difference between the two values of the cost function divided by the fractional change in channel width. In reality, a more sophisticated shape optimization algorithm is preferably implemented—one that is capable of simultaneously determining the sensitivity of the cost function to several parameter changes. Shape optimization algorithms are widely used for many applications, and existing approaches can easily be adapted for this application.
The convergence manager 906 monitors the variation in the cost function with changes in the parameters of the design, and formally guarantees that the design is updated in a way that provides convergence on a “local optimum” and also makes large enough changes in the design to provide assurance that the design has a high chance of being a global optimum. As the iterative design being altered by the perturbation loop converges on a global optimum, the convergence manager tests for global optimum (by testing the result of large perturbations in the design parameters), and by monitoring the convergence of the cost function by tracking the reduced sensitivity of the cost function to perturbations, as shown at step 922. At the optimal design, slight perturbations in all parameters in all directions generally result in slightly increased values of the cost function. When the convergence manager determines that the design has converged to within some margin of the optimal design, the iteration is halted, and the final design is presented as output.
Although various preferred embodiments have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications of the exemplary embodiment are possible without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention.
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/053,859, filed Jan. 19, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,018 which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/326,151 filed Sep. 28, 2001.
The inventions described herein were supported in part by DARPA/Air Force Contract F33615-99-C-1442.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60326151 | Sep 2001 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10053859 | Jan 2002 | US |
| Child | 11136793 | US |
