Hyoungsoon Lee

Thermal Modeling of Extreme Heat Flux Microchannel Coolers for GaN-on-SiC Semiconductor Devices

Gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) dissipate high power densities which generate hotspots and cause thermomechanical problems. Here, we propose and simulate GaN-based HEMT technologies that can remove power densities exceeding 30 kW/cm2 at relatively low mass flow rate and pressure drop. Thermal performance of the microcooler module is investigated by modeling both single- and two-phase flow conditions. A reduced-order modeling approach, based on an extensive literature review, is used to predict the appropriate range of heat transfer coefficients associated with the flow regimes for the flow conditions. Finite element simulations are performed to investigate the temperature distribution from GaN to parallel microchannels of the microcooler. Single- and two-phase conjugate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations provide a lower bound of the total flow resistance in the microcooler as well as overall thermal resistance from GaN HEMT to working fluid. A parametric study is performed to optimize the thermal performance of the microcooler. The modeling results provide detailed flow conditions for the microcooler in order to investigate the required range of heat transfer coefficients for removal of heat fluxes up to 30 kW/cm2 and a junction temperature maintained below 250 °C. The detailed modeling results include local temperature and velocity fields in the microcooler module, which can help in identifying the approximate locations of the maximum velocity and recirculation regions that are susceptible to dryout conditions.

Numerical Simulation of Advanced Monolithic Microcooler Designs for High Heat Flux Microelectronics

This study considers CFD simulations with conjugate heat transfer performed in the framework of designing a complex micro-scale cooling geometry. The numerical investigation of the three-dimensional, laminar flow (Reynolds number smaller than 480) and the solid conduction is done on a reduced model of the heat sink micro-structure to enable exploring a variety of configurations at a limited computational cost. The reduced model represents a unit-cell, and uses periodic and symmetry boundary conditions to mimic the conditions in the entire cooling manifold. A simulation of the entire heat sink micro-structure was performed to verify the unit-cell set-up, and the comparison demonstrated that the unit-cell simulations allow reducing the computational cost by two orders of magnitude while retaining accurate results. The baseline design for the unit-cell represents a configuration used in traditional electronic heat sinks, i.e. a simple channel geometry with a rectangular cross section, with a diameter of 50 μm, where the fluid flows between two cooling fins. Subsequently three types of modified geometries with feature sizes of 50 μm were considered: baffled geometries that guide the flow towards the hotspot region, geometries where the fins are connected by crossbars, and a woodpile structure without cooling fins. Three different mass-flow rates were tested. Based on the medium mass-flow rate considered, the woodpile geometry showed the highest heat transfer coefficient with an increase of 70% compared to the baseline geometry, but at the cost of increasing the pressure drop by more than 300%. The crossbar geometries were shown to be promising configurations, with increases in the heat transfer coefficient of more than 20% for a 70% increase in pressure drop. The potential for further optimization of the crossbar configurations by adding or removing individual crossbars will be investigated in a follow up study. The results presented demonstrate the increase in performance that can be obtained by investigating a variety of designs for single phase cooling devices using unit-cell conjugate heat transfer simulations.Copyright

Experimental Investigation of Flow Condensation in Microgravity

Future manned space missions are expected to greatly increase the space vehicles size, weight, and heat dissipation requirements. An effective means to reducing both size and weight is to replace single-phase thermal management systems with two-phase counterparts that capitalize upon both latent and sensible heat of the coolant rather than sensible heat alone. This shift is expected to yield orders of magnitude enhancements in flow boiling and condensation heat transfer coefficients. A major challenge to this shift is a lack of reliable tools for accurate prediction of two-phase pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient in reduced gravity. Developing such tools will require a sophisticated experimental facility to enable investigators to perform both flow boiling and condensation experiments in microgravity in pursuit of reliable databases. This study will discuss the development of the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) for the International Space Station (ISS), which was initiated in 2012 in collaboration between Purdue University and NASA Glenn Research Center. This facility was recently tested in parabolic flight to acquire condensation data for FC-72 in microgravity, aided by high-speed video analysis of interfacial structure of the condensation film. The condensation is achieved by rejecting heat to a counter flow of water, and experiments were performed at different mass velocities of FC-72 and water and different FC-72 inlet qualities. It is shown that the film flow varies from smooth-laminar to wavy-laminar and ultimately turbulent with increasing FC-72 mass velocity. The heat transfer coefficient is highest near the inlet of the condensation tube, where the film is thinnest, and decreases monotonically along the tube, except for high FC-72 mass velocities, where the heat transfer coefficient is enhanced downstream. This enhancement is attributed to both turbulence and increased interfacial waviness. One-ge correlations are shown to predict the average condensation heat transfer coefficient with varying degrees of success, and a recent correlation is identified for its superior predictive capability, evidenced by a mean absolute error of 21.7%.

VALIDATION STUDY FOR VOF SIMULATIONS OF BOILING IN A MICROCHANNEL

This paper presents a comparison of Volume-of-Fluid simulation results with experiments [1] for two-phase flow and heat transfer in a micro channel. Mass transfer between the phases is modeled using a reduced-order model, requiring the definition of a time relaxation constant, r. A two-step solution procedure is used, where first a fixed temperature boundary condition is imposed at the heater to avoid overheating of the device during the initial development of the two-phase flow. After obtaining a quasi-steady-state solution this is changed to a heat flux boundary condition to determine the final solution. Results using three different values for r indicate that the value of the constant should vary throughout the domain. A final simulation where r is defined as a function of the streamwise location results in a prediction of the base temperature within 1K of the experimental result, a pressure drop within 30%, and a prediction of the location of transition from subcooled to saturated flow within 2mm.Copyright

High heat flux two-phase cooling of electronics with integrated diamond/porous copper heat sinks and microfluidic coolant supply

We here present an approach to cooling of electronics requiring dissipation of extreme heat fluxes exceeding 1 kW/cm2 over ~1 cm2 areas. The approach applies a combination of heat spreading using laser micromachined diamond heat sinks; evaporation/boiling in fine featured (5 μm) conformal porous copper coatings; microfluidic liquid routing for uniform coolant supply over the surface of the heat sink; and phase separation to control distribution of liquid and vapor phases. We characterize the performance of these technologies independently and integrated into functional devices. We report two-phase heat transfer performance of diamond/porous copper heat sinks with microfluidic manifolding at full device scales (0.7 cm2) with heat fluxes exceeding 1300 W/cm2 using water working fluid. We further show application of hydrophobic phase separation membranes for phase management with heat dissipation exceeding 450 W/cm2 at the scale of a single extended surface (~300 μm).

Inductive Coupled Plasma Etching of High Aspect Ratio Silicon Carbide Microchannels for Localized Cooling

High aspect ratio microchannels using high thermal conductivity materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) have recently been explored to locally cool micro-scale power electronics that are prone to on-chip hot spot generation. Analytical and finite element modeling shows that SiC-based microchannels used for localized cooling should have high aspect ratio features (above 8:1) to obtain heat transfer coefficients (300 to 600 kW/m2·K) required to obtain gallium nitride (GaN) device channel temperatures below 100°C. This work presents experimental results of microfabricating high aspect ratio microchannels in a 4H-SiC substrate using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching. Depths of 90 μm and 80 μm were achieved with a 5:1 and 12:1 aspect ratio, respectively. This microfabrication process will enable the integration of microchannels (backside features) with high-power density devices such as GaN-on-SiC based electronics, as well as other SiC-based microfluidic applications.Copyright

Microchannel cooling strategies for high heat flux (1 kW/cm 2 ) power electronic applications

The wide band-gap (WBG) semiconductor electronics such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) are becoming more popular in power electronics applications due to their excellent functionality at higher operating temperatures, powers, frequencies and in high radiation environments compared to Si devices. However, the continued drive for higher device and packaging densities has led to extreme heat fluxes on the order of 1 kW/cm2 that requires aggressive microchannel cooling strategies in order to maintain the device junction temperature below acceptable limits. A reduced order single/two phase thermal-fluidic model is developed to investigate the effect of micro-channel geometry parameters, packaging materials and fluid flow conditions on the cooling performance of various cooling strategies. Water and R245fa refrigerant are used as single- and two-phase working fluids, respectively. We consider three cooling strategies: • Design A: copper cold-plate micro-channel module bonded to the device substrate • Design B: embedded micro-channels directly etched into the device substrate and • Design C: embedded micro-channels with a 3D manifold with inlet and outlet module. The proposed embedded micro-channels with 3D-manifold with R245fa working fluid has the potential to achieve the lowest thermal resistance ∼0.07 K/W and pressure drop ∼10 kPa for flow rate Q ∼ 0.21 l/min (Tin = 90 °C) and exit quality x = 0.44.

Full Scale Simulation of an Integrated Monolithic Heat Sink for Thermal Management of a High Power Density GaN-SiC Chip

Advances in manufacturing techniques are inspiring the design of novel integrated microscale thermal cooling devices seeking to push the limits of current thermal management solutions in high heat flux applications. These advanced cooling technologies can be used to improve the performance of high power density electronics such as GaN-based RF power amplifiers. However, their optimal design requires careful analysis of the combined effects of conduction and convection.Many numerical simulations and optimization studies have been performed for single cell models of microchannel heat sinks, but these simulations do not provide insight into the flow and heat transfer through the entire device. This study therefore presents the results of conjugate heat transfer CFD simulations for a complex copper monolithic heat sink integrated with a 100 micron thick, 5 mm by 1 mm high power density GaN-SiC chip. The computational model (13 million cells) represents both the chip and the heat sink, which consists of multiple inlets and outlets for fluid entry and exit, delivery and collection manifold systems, and an array of fins that form rectangular microchannels. Total chip powers of up to 150 W at the GaN gates were considered, and a quarter of the device was modeled for total inlet mass flow rates of 1.44 g/s and 1.8 g/s (0.36 g/s and 0.45 g/s for the quarter device), corresponding to laminar flow at Reynolds numbers between 19.5 and 119.3. It was observed that the mass flow rates through individual microchannels in the device vary by up to 45%, depending on the inlet/outlet locations and pressure drop in the manifolds. The results demonstrate that full device simulations provide valuable insight into the multiple parameters that affect cooling performance.Copyright

Experimental investigation of embedded micro-pin-fins for single-phase heat transfer and pressure drop

Three-dimensional (3D) stacked integrated circuit (IC) chips offer significant performance improvement, but offer important challenges for thermal management including, for the case of microfluidic cooling, constraints on channel dimensions, and pressure drop. Here, we investigate heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of a microfluidic cooling device with staggered pin-fin array arrangement with dimensions as follows: diameter D1⁄4 46.5 lm; spacing, S 100 lm; and height, H 110 lm. Deionized singlephase water with mass flow rates of _ m1⁄4 15.1–64.1 g/min was used as the working fluid, corresponding to values of Re (based on pin fin diameter) from 23 to 135, where heat fluxes up to 141 W/cm are removed. The measurements yield local Nusselt numbers that vary little along the heated channel length and values for both the Nu and the friction factor do not agree well with most data for pin fin geometries in the literature. Two new correlations for the average Nusselt number ( Re) and Fanning friction factor ( Re ) are proposed that capture the heat transfer and pressure drop behavior for the geometric and operating conditions tested in this study with mean absolute error (MAE) of 4.9% and 1.7%, respectively. The work shows that a more comprehensive investigation is required on thermofluidic characterization of pin fin arrays with channel heights Hf< 150 lm and fin spacing S1⁄4 50–500 lm, respectively, with the Reynolds number, Re< 300. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4039475]

Enhanced Heat Transfer Using Microporous Copper Inverse Opals

Enhanced boiling is one of the popular cooling schemes in thermal management due to its superior heat transfer characteristics. This study demonstrates the ability of copper inverse opal (CIO) porous structures to enhance pool boiling performance using a thin CIO film with a thickness of 10 lm and pore diameter of 5 lm. The microfabricated CIO film increases microscale surface roughness that in turn leads to more active nucleation sites thus improved boiling performance parameters such as heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and critical heat flux (CHF) compared to those of smooth Si surfaces. The experimental results for CIO film show a maximum CHF of 225 W/cm (at 16.2 C superheat) or about three times higher than that of smooth Si surface (80 W/cm at 21.6 C superheat). Optical images showing bubble formation on the microporous copper surface are captured to provide detailed information of bubble departure diameter and frequency. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4040088]