Design and Optimization of Single-Phase Liquid Cooled Microchannel Heat Sink

Semiconductor devices for demanding automotive applications generate a large amount of heat (>100 Wcm²). These high power devices can be cooled off very effectively by liquid coolant flowing through the microchannel heat sink. Microchannel heat sinks are very attractive because of their compactness, light weight, and large surface-to-volume ratio. Higher surface-to-volume ratio results in enhanced cooling performance. In this paper, a systematic robust analytical method is presented for design and optimization of single-phase liquid cooled microchannel heat sink. Effects of various design parameters such as eccentricity and footprint of heat source or device, thickness of the heat sink base, channel aspect ratio, number of microchannels or fins, coolant flow rate, and thermal conductivity of heat sink material on heat sink thermal resistances and pressure drop are delineated. Finally, analytical results are compared with experimental data and good agreement is obtained. The analytical method helps to reduce the design cycle time and time-to-market significantly.