Air Cooling of Power Electronics Through Vertically Enhanced Manifold Microchannel Systems (VEMMS)
Open Access
- 8 September 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by ASME International in Journal of Heat Transfer
- Vol. 143 (10)
- https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4051999
Abstract
To improve the reliability and efficiency of power electronics, their thermal management must be further enhanced. Next-generation electronics systems are predicted to dissipate more heat as die size shrinks and power levels increase. Traditional air-cooling approaches usually provide insufficient performance or require heavy and bulky heat sinks to achieve adequate thermal management. To address this problem, a novel air cooled vertically enhanced manifold microchannel system (VEMMS) was developed. While minimizing the footprint required on the printed circuit board, the system offers efficient thermal management in a conformal scheme that accommodates the associated power electronics and their electrical connections. This work describes the manufacturing process of the air-cooled VEMMS heat sink and its experimental characterization and thermo-fluidic performance. Good agreement was obtained between the test results and numerical predictions. Using air at ambient conditions, thermal resistance of 2.6 K/W was achieved with a single-sided cooling architecture with a 2 footprint and 3 total heat sink volume. A full-bridge electrical power density of ∼84 kWe/L and overall direct current (DC–DC) converter power density of ∼20 kWe/L were achieved at reasonable flow rates and pressure drops using commercially available miniature electric fans.Keywords
Funding Information
- U.S. Army Research Laboratory (W911NF-18-2-0118)
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