MDS investigation on the heat transfer properties of CNT micro-channel cooler

With the continuously increasing packaging density, the corresponding techniques for heat dissipation are vital to high performance components. During the system operation, the heat generated by components must be efficiently transferred outside of the electronic package. To meet the heat removal requirement of the electronic devices with a high power, several liquid cooling schemes have been suggested, among which the micro-channel cooler have gained the most attention. Simultaneously, the carbon nanotube (CNT) has attracted a significant interest in the material properties and exploratory application. Some studies have been recently conducted to evaluate the thermal performance of the CNTs and their applicability for heat removal in integrated circuit (IC) devices. By utilizing the adhesive transfer process to form the CNT bundles as the fins during the micro-channel development, the devices can be immune from the high temperature required by the CNT growth process. In the present paper, the interface heat transfer in the CNT-based micro-channel cooler has been investigated. The thermal resistances introduced by the interface between the CNT and the epoxy due to adhesive transfer and the interface between the CNT and water have been simulated by molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) method. And the thermal resistance at the interface between the CNT and the epoxy is about 1.0×1.5 - 10^-8Km²/W. The obtained MDS results are likely to provide the microscopic understanding of the thermal performance of the CNT micro-channel cooler as well as provide references to the macroscopic evaluation of the thermal efficiency for the micro-channel cooler design and optimization.