Local Measurements of Flow Boiling Heat Transfer on Hot Spots in 3D Compatible Radial Microchannels

Hot spots and temperature non-uniformities are critical thermal characteristics of current high power electronics and future three dimensional (3D) integrated circuits (ICs). Experimental investigation to understand flow boiling heat transfer on hot spots is required for any two-phase cooling configuration targeting these applications. This work investigates hot spot cooling utilizing novel radial microchannels with embedded pin arrays representing through-silicon-via (TSV) interconnects. Inlet orifices were designed to distribute flow in radial channels in a manner that supplies appropriate amounts of coolant to high-power-density cores. Specially designed test vehicles and systems were used to produce non-uniform heat flux profiles with nominally 20 W/cm² background heating, 200 W/cm² core heating and up to 21 W/mm² hot spot (0.2 mm x 0.2 mm) heating to mimic a stackable eight core processor die (20 mm x 20 mm) with two hot spots on each core. The temperatures associated with flow boiling heat transfer at the hot spots were locally measured by resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) integrated between the heat source and sink. At nominal pressure and flow conditions, use of R1234ze in these devices resulted in a maximum hot spot temperature (T_hs) of under 63 °C and average T_hs of 57 °C at a hot spot power density of 21 W/mm² . A semi-empirical model was used to calculate the equivalent heat transfer rate around the hot spots which can provide a baseline for future studies on local thermal management of hot spots.