THERMAL MANAGEMENT of IC's and MICROPROCESSOR USING HEAT SINKS (PIN FIN AND CHANNEL) INCORPORATING PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS (PCM) FOR TRANSIENT OPERATION

摘要

Thermal management of high power electronic components (chips) with high heat dissipation ratings using air as the cooling fluid clearly demands non-traditional means to be successful. Many different approaches have been attempted in the past with varying degrees of success. One method is by using heat sinks made of channels or pin fins. Heat sinking capabilities and requirements of high power dissipation IC's and microprocessors is well understood for steady operation. However, many electronics components operate transiently, that is most of their useful like is spent in on-off operation. One way to reduce the cooling load requirement or the convective flow requirement for on-off operation is to incorporate PCM (Phase Change Materials) to traditional heat sinks such as the standard pin fin and the longitudinal plate fins. In addition, wherever chips must be cooled by passive means only, which involves the use of natural convection and radiation as the only heat transfer modes available to the designers, PCM's are the ideal candidates.Storage of thermal energy can be accomplished by either raising the temperature of a working fluid (sensible heat) or by having a working material change phase (latent heat). Typically most systems use liquid to solid phase change for its ease of implementation. The literature on the subject is large and growing. However, it appears that ready-made solutions for traditional heat sinks using PCM's are not yet very common.This paper describes work on the design and development of a PCM pin fin and PCM channel heat sink for the cooling of IC's and microprocessors during transient operating conditions using commercially available CFD package Preliminary results indicate very favorably that PCM devices work relatively well in maintaining target for the electronics components.