Development of Flat Plate Type Small Cooling Device

Flat Plate Type 소형 냉각소자 개발

Recently, a problem related to the thermal management in portable electronic and telecommunication devices is becoming issued. That is due to the trend of slimness of the devices, so it is not easy to find the optimal thermal management technology for the devices. From now on, a pressed circular type cooling device has been mainly used, however the cooling device with thin thickness is becoming needed by the inner space constraint. In the present study, the silicon and metal flat plate type cooling device with the separated vapor and liquid flow path was designed and fabricated. Through the experimental study, the normal isothermal characteristic by vapor-liquid phase change was confirmed and the cooling device with 70mm of total length showed 6.8W of the heat transfer rate within the range of $4{\sim}5^{\circ}C$/W of thermal resistance. In the meantime, the metal cooling device was developed for commercialization. The device was designed to have all structures of evaporator, vapor flow path, liquid flow path and condenser in one plate. And an envelope of that could be completed by combining the two plates of same structure and size. And the simplicity of fabrication process and reduction of manufacturing cost could be accomplished by using the stamping technology for fabricating large flow paths relatively. In the future, it will be possible to develop the commercialized cooling device by revising the fabrication process and enhancing the thermal performance of that.