Development of High Performance Thin Heat Pipe for Cooling Small Form Factor Devices

The fast development in computing technology and the trend towards miniature architecture has created a more challenging task for cooling high-powered electronic components in further confined spaces. Thermal solution providers are required to develop higher performance and thinner heat pipes for their cooling devices. This paper shows the detail development of 1 mm thick heat pipe. In order to improve and characterize the heat pipe performance, various parameters were investigated such as wick structures; heat pipe length and thickness; operating temperatures; water-surface wettability and operation against gravity. In general, for a low-profile device, the heat pipe length is usually less than 150 mm and the operating temperature less than 80 °C. Based on this condition, if using a diameter 4 mm heat pipe flattened to 1 mm thick, the maximum heat transfer is about 11 watts.