On the use of flat heat pipes as thermal spreaders in power electronics cooling

Author

Avenas, Y. ; Gillot, C. ; Bricard, A. ; Schaeffer, C.

Author_Institution

Lab. d´´Electrotechnique de Grenoble, UJF, Saint Martin D´´Heres, France

Volume

2

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Firstpage

753

Abstract

Power devices such as IGBTs dissipate very large heat flux densities. Therefore the thermal environment is a main issue in their performance and reliability. In order to improve heat transfer, materials with high thermal conductivity seem to be very useful. Because of their high cost, we suggest replacing them with a groove wick and sintered metal powder wick heat pipes. Thermal simulations are provided to show the interest of these structures in power electronics. Heat spreaders composed of heat pipe or plain material are compared. A 40% decrease of the thermal resistance between the heat source and the ambient is expected. Then an experimental study on a brass-water heat pipe is described. Results are compared with thermal simulations.

Keywords

heat pipes; insulated gate bipolar transistors; power electronics; thermal conductivity; thermal management (packaging); IGBT; brass-water heat pipe; groove wick; heat flux densities; heat pipes; heat source; heat transfer improvement; high thermal conductivity; power devices; power electronics cooling; reliability; sintered metal powder wick; thermal environment; thermal resistance; thermal simulations; thermal spreaders; Conducting materials; Costs; Electronics cooling; Heat transfer; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Powders; Power electronics; Resistance heating; Thermal conductivity; Thermal resistance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 2002. pesc 02. 2002 IEEE 33rd Annual

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7262-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PSEC.2002.1022544

Filename

1022544