Numerical Simulations for Digitized Heat Transfer

This paper presents estimates of heat removal capabilities of a Digitized Heat Transfer (DHT) cooled device, a novel active thermal management technique for high power density electronics and integrated microsystems. In DHT, thermal energy is transported by a discrete array of electrostatically activated microdroplets of liquid metals, alloys or aqueous solutions with the potential of supporting significantly higher heat transfer rates than classical air-cooled heat sinks. Actuation methods for dispensing and transporting individual fluid slugs with a high degree of precision and programmability are described, and numerical results for the amount of heat flux removal a DHT device can obtain are presented.