Cooling of Miniature Electronic Systems Using Diamond Circuit Boards
At a Glance
Section titled āAt a Glanceā| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2018-05-01 |
| Authors | Nicholas V. Apollo, Arman Ahnood, Hualin Zhan, Kumaravelu Ganesan, Alan Jay Smith |
| Institutions | The University of Melbourne |
| Citations | 4 |
Abstract
Section titled āAbstractāThe drive for miniaturization of electronic systems has led to increases in spatial power density of electronic devices, making thermal management a critical challenge. For applications which require placing electronic components into increasingly smaller areas, such as 3D IC system-in-package architectures, greater thermal loads increase the probability of device failure. In this work, we present a circuit board consisting of polycrystalline diamond which has excellent thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity. Moreover, water cooling channels are integrated into the circuit board to achieve rapid and spatially-uniform cooling compared with an alumina ceramic circuit board. The total diamond package size was 1 cm Ć 1 cm Ć 1.6 cm excluding cooling channels. It was heated with a power density of 1.1 W cm-2 and cooled with a liquid flow rate of 64.5 ml s-1. Computational fluid dynamics modelling was performed to investigate the impact of substrate material and geometry on heat spreading, hot-spot generation, and water cooling efficacy during electrical powering. High thermal conductivity substrates, such as diamond, enabled a more uniform heat distribution paving the way for achieving highly miniaturized systems with lesser constraints on the hot spot formation. Furthermore, enhanced thermal conductivity lessens a key requirement for the cooling mechanism to be placed at a close proximity to the thermal load. As a result, more compact electronics packages, including 3D architectures, are possible.