Cooling of Microelectronic Devices Packaged in a Single Chip Module Using Single Phase Refrigerant R-123

An approach towards practical application of microchannel cooling system is necessary as the demand of high power density devices is increasing. Colgan et. al. [1] have designed a unit known as Single Chip Module (SCM) by considering the practical issues for packaging a microchannel cooling system with a microelectronic device. The performance of the SCM has already been investigated by using water as working fluid by Colgan et. al. [1]. Considering the actual working conditions, water cannot be used in electronic devices as the working fluid because any leakage may lead to system damage. Alternative fluids like refrigerants were considered. In this research, the performance of SCM has been studied by using refrigerant R-123 as working fluid and compared with water cooled system. Cooling of 83.33 W/cm² has been achieved for a powered area of 3 cm² by maintaining chip temperature of 60°C. The heat transfer co-efficient obtained at a flowrate of 0.7 lpm was 34.87 kW/m²-K. The results obtained indicate that from a thermal viewpoint, R-123 can be considered as working fluid for microelectronic cooling devices.