Modular Flow Structure Design for a Single-Phase Manifold Microchannel Cold Plate

The present work is generally related to the design of a manifold microchannel heat sink with high modularity and performance for electronics cooling, utilizing two well established (i.e., jet impingement and channel flow) cooling technologies. The present cold plate design provides flexibility to assemble manifold sections in five different configurations to reach different flow structures, and thus different cooling performance, without redesign. The details of the modular manifold and possible configurations of a cold plate comprising three manifold sections are shown herein. A conjugate flow and heat transfer 3-D model is developed for each configuration of the cold plate to demonstrate the merits of each modular design. Parallel flow configurations are used to satisfy a uniform cooling requirement from each module, but a “U-shape” parallel flow “base” configuration cools the modules more uniformly than a “Z-shape” flow pattern due to intrinsic pressure distribution characteristics. A serial fluid flow configuration requires the minimum coolant flow rate with a gradually increasing device temperature along the flow direction. Two mixed (i.e., parallel + serial flow) configurations achieve either cooling performance similar to the “U-shape” configuration with slightly more than half of the coolant flow rate, or cooling of a specific module to a much lower temperature level. Generally speaking, the current cold plate design significantly extends its application to different situations with different cooling requirements.