Experimental investigation of micro heat pipes in silicon wafers Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • An experimental investigation was conducted to verify the micro heat pipe concept and determine the potential advantages of constructing an array of micro heat pipes as an integral part of semiconductor devices. Several silicon wafers were fabricated with distributed heat sources on one side and an array of micro heat pipes on the other. These micro heat pipe arrays were evacuated and charged with a predetermined amount of methanol. Using an infrared thermal imaging unit, the temperature gradients and maximum localized temperatures were measured for the wafer with the micro heat pipe array and compared with the results obtained for a plain ungrooved silicon wafer. In this way, the magnitude of the thermal enhancement resulting from the micro heat pipe array could be determined. The results of this comparison indicate that incorporating an array of micro heat pipes as an integral part of semiconductor devices can significantly decrease the temperature gradient across the chip, decrease the maximum chip temperature, and decrease the number and intensity of localized hot spots. For silicon wafers with a micro heat pipe array density of 1.24% and power levels of 4W/cm2, reductions in the maximum chip temperature of approximately 11C and increases in the effective thermal conductivity of approximately 25% were measured. In addition to the reductions in maximum chip temperature and increases in the effective thermal conductivity, the incorporation of the micro heat pipe array was found to significantly improve the transient thermal response of the wafers.

published proceedings

  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Dynamic Systems and Control Division (Publication) DSC

author list (cited authors)

  • Peterson, G. P., Duncan, A. B., Ahmed, A. S., Mallik, A. K., & Weichold, M. H.

complete list of authors

  • Peterson, GP||Duncan, AB||Ahmed, AS||Mallik, AK||Weichold, MH

publication date

  • December 1991