Temperature management in microsystems is a technical problem with an increasing importance: although the power consumption of integrated circuits is not increasing, due to further miniaturization the local power density is still increasing. Moreover, in the near future more and more micro components will be integrated in flexible system-in-foil (SIF) packages. These packages can contain ultra-thin (8–50 micron) flexible embedded silicon chips combined with polymer electronics, optical systems and microfluidic channels e.g. for point-of-care diagnostics. However, the low thermal conductivity of the polymeric package is aggravating the heat management problem. The life span of micro components, but also the performance of some micro components, like (O)LEDs, can be strongly temperature dependent. Therefore an adequate temperature control is required.
The thermal management problems can potentially be addressed by embedding micro-channels containing a flowing cooling medium in close proximity and preferably directly underneath the electronic circuit. However, many applications do not allow for external pumps and therefore pumping needs to be integrated in these channels as well.
In this paper some promising integrated micro pumping techniques, like AC-electro osmosis and ferrofluidic pumping, will be described and discussed. The multi-physics modeling approach will be presented and the numerical results will be analyzed and compared with flow fields that are measured by 3D astigmatism micro particle tracking velocimetry (3D micro-PTV).
