Electronics Thermal Management Using Advanced Hybrid Two-Phase Loop Technology

The paper discusses an advanced Hybrid Two-Phase Loop (HTPL) technology for electronics thermal management. The HTPL combined active mechanical pumping with passive capillary pumping realizing a reliable yet high performance cooling system. The evaporator developed for the HTPL used 3-dimensional metallic wick structures to enhance boiling heat transfer by passive capillary separation of liquid and vapor phases. Through the testing using various prototype hybrid loops, it was demonstrated that the hybrid loops were capable of removing high heat fluxes from multiple heat sources with large surface areas up to 135cm² and 10kW heat load. Because of the passive capillary phase separation, the hybrid loop operation didn’t require any active flow control of the liquid in the evaporator, even at highly transient and asymmetrical heat inputs between the evaporators. These results represent the significant advance over state-of-the-art heat pipes, loop heat pipes and evaporative spray cooling devices in terms of performance, robustness and simplicity.