Cooling potential of galinstan-based minichannel heat sinks

Galinstan, a gallium, indium and tin eutectic, may be exploited for enhanced cooling of microelectronics due to its unique thermophysical properties. However, a critical evaluation of the cooling potential of galinstan has not been undertaken. Provided here is a first-order optimization model to min...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in13th InterSociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems pp. 297 - 302
Main Authors Hodes, M., Rui Zhang, Wilcoxon, R., Lower, N.
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.05.2012
Subjects
galinstan
Heat pumps
Heat sinks
Heat transfer
Metals
minichannel heat sink
Temperature
thermal management
Water heating
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Summary:Galinstan, a gallium, indium and tin eutectic, may be exploited for enhanced cooling of microelectronics due to its unique thermophysical properties. However, a critical evaluation of the cooling potential of galinstan has not been undertaken. Provided here is a first-order optimization model to minimize the total thermal resistance of galinstan-based heat sinks under constraints on form factor and pressure drop. The geometry considered is a minichannel heat sink that includes millimeter-scale rectangular channels to provide surface area enhancement. Calculations, which take into account both caloric and conduction/convection thermal resistances, suggest that galinstan is a better coolant than water in such configurations, reducing thermal resistance by about 30%.
ISBN:9781424495337
1424495334
ISSN:1087-9870
2577-0799
DOI:10.1109/ITHERM.2012.6231443