Experimental and Numerical Study of Transient Electronic Chip Cooling by Liquid Flow in Microchannel Heat Sinks

Cooling of electronic chips has become a critical aspect in the development of electronic devices. Overheating may cause the malfunction or damage of electronics. The time needed for heat removal is particularly important in a wide range of electronic systems, such as switching circuits. Thus, it is important to characterize the transient behavior of the system and determine the response. Most studies in the literature have focused on steady-state circumstances and the transient effects have not been considered in the detail needed. In this article, an experimental system and a numerical model were developed to test the effects of different parameters and their influence on the transient electronic chip cooling by liquid flow in microchannel heat sinks. The temperature change with time of the system for different heat fluxes at different flow rates was determined, from which the response time is obtained. Three different configurations of multi-microchannel heat sinks were tested during the experiment. Nu...