Numerical investigation on thermal properties of micro-pin-fin cooler

Journal article, 2011

Micro-pin-fin cooler mounted on the power chip enables the heat removal to meet modern microsystem requirement. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been proven as a potential material for micro-coolers due to the superior thermal conductivity, good mechanical property and so forth, and there appear various applications of CNTs in the micro-cooler technology. In the present paper, an analysis of the thermal and hydraulic characteristics of the micro-pin-fin heat sink was conducted, where air was used as the cooling medium and an impinging jet was introduced to enhance the heat transfer. Three-dimension computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out for micro-pin-fin coolers with various parameters, including the pin-fin size and pattern as well as the jet velocity and nozzle diameter. The flow field and thermal properties of the micro-pin-fin heat sink were obtained, and the heat removal efficiency was evaluated.