4 th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels June 19-21, 2006, Limerick, Ireland Paper No. ICNMM2006-96121 A REVIEW OF MANUFACTURING PROCESSES FOR MICROCHANNEL HEAT EXCHANGER FABRICATION
Sean Ashman Mechanical Engineering Department, swa8858@rit.edu Satish G. Kandlikar Mechanical Engineering Department, sgkeme@rit.edu
Abstract
This paper provides a summary of the types of manufacturing processes currently being used in the fabrication of micro heat exchangers with the main focus on passages with hydraulic diameter of less than 200 micrometers. The following manufacturing processes are reviewed: LIGA, Chemical Etching, Stereolithography, and micro-machining. A comparison of different techniques related to tolerances, material compatibility, and ease of manufacturing is given. Processes capable of high volume fabrication are highlighted.
1 Introduction
Micro heat exchangers are becoming an important area of interest in many fields of developing technology that require compact high heat energy removal solutions. Fields such as MEMS, microelectronics, biomedical, fuel processing, and aerospace are all pushing the limits of thermal control and are finding ways to make smaller devices with higher heat flux potential requiring more efficient smaller heat exchangers to cool their key working components.
As these advances push the envelope of available fabrication technologies, it is also important for the technology of cooling solutions like micro heat exchangers to keep pace in both heat handling ability and efficient manufacturing processes. Some of the more established manufacturing process are highlighted and discussed in this paper. Summaries of basic process, common materials, sample applications, and tolerances are presented for the following processes:
Micro-Machining Diffusion Bonding Stereolithography Chemical Etching LIGA
2 Processes
Table 1 is a compilation from several heat-exchanger studies. It is sorted first by the manufacturing process and second by channel hydraulic diameter, starting with the smallest and going up. It provides a reference for what is possible with the different types of manufacturing processes and what types of channel sizes have been achieved.
2.1 Micro-Machining
Micro-machining is the most diverse category of manufacturing processes available for micro heat exchangers as it covers any technique in which tools are used to cut, bond, form, deform, or remove material for the purpose of creation of the channels or heat exchanger assembly. The most commonly used methods in the micro-machining category are diffusion bonding and diamond tool milling/grinding. Advantages of machining are the broad range of materials that can be processed using this process. Micro-machining does not limit to materials that etch well or that are good electrical conductors but simply to materials that are soft and ductile enough to be machined.
Figure 1 A cross sectional view of microchannels created with an EDM Micro-Grinding technique, channel width of of 60m, Kmper et al. (1997). 1 Copyright 2006 by ASME Proceedings of ICNMM2006 Fourth International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels June 19-21, 2006, Limerick, Ireland
ICNMM2006-96121 2 Copyright #### by ASME 2.1.1 Diffusion Bonding
Diffusion bonding is a welding process by which two surfaces are bonded together under high temperature and mechanical pressure in a vacuum or non-oxygen environment (Kang and Teng, 1995, Halbritter et al. 2004, and Burger et al. 2001). The temperatures required for the process are usually 0.5 - 0.8 times the melting temperature for the material (Kang and Teng, 1995). In cases where the exchanger material is a metal this can be in the range of 500C - 1000C Halbritter et al., (2004). For silicon this range is roughly 950C-1100C (Burger et al., 2001 and Zhang et al. 2000).
It is worth noting that diffusion bonding is a secondary process used to bond together layers into stacks which form a heat exchanger. Common methods for channel creation prior to diffusion bonding are chemical etching or micromachining processes that form the channels.
2.2 Stereolithography
2.2.1 Overview Stereolithography is a process by which a UV light ray is scanned through a reactive liquid polymer that hardens creating a very thin layer of solid. The solid is lowered slightly and this process is repeated, building layer after layer on top of one another tracing out the shape of the part being made. The resulting polymer structure can be formed into a ceramic through a heat curing process called pyrolysis (Carman et al., 2002). Stereolithography provides for very flexible design geometries that may not be considered with other processes such as Chemical etching or machining. Liu et al (2005) demonstrated that the stereolithography reduced prototype fabrication time from 14 hours to 1-4 hours depending on geometry complexity.
Figure 2 shows a multilayer pattern developed by Carman et al. (2002). As seen from Fig. 2, complexity of the geometry as compared to etching processes is quite dramatic with multileveled cross-shaped patterns that could not be considered practical to manufacture from an etching standpoint.
Figure 2 Multileveled cross-shaped pattern in silicon, Carman et al (2002).
2.2.2 Materials used in Stereolithography
The most common materials used for micro heat exchangers today are Silicates and Silicon Carbides. Stereolithography requires a modified chemically structured material from this norm in that it uses SiCN compounds that facilitate the UV scanning step that drives the entire process. SiCN is less resistant to combustion and is only considered thermally stable up to a temperature of 1500C in an air environment [Carman et al (2002)].
2.3 Chemical Etching
A- Bonded Glass Plate
B- 2-layer Sandwich Design
C- 4-layer Stack Design
Figure 3 A- A cross-sectional view of a bonded glass plate set- up; B- Inverted-aligned stacks of channels oriented to form enclosed channels; C- Two (or more) stacks of channel assemblies used to make a heat-exchanger , Grommol (1994).
2.3.1 Overview Chemical etching is a process by which a strong acid or base is used to remove material to shape microchannels. All examples presented here have used some kind of silicate - either Silicon Wafers (110) or Glass. The main concept behind the process is that materials with a directional material removal rate dependency are required. In the case of Silicon Wafers, material will be removed at a rate up to 600x faster in one direction than the direction perpendicular to it, making it ideal for the fabrication of rectangular micro-channels with very small cross sections [Harpole and Eninger (1991)]. The majority of research into micro heat exchangers appears to be 2 Copyright 2006 by ASME 3 Copyright #### by ASME done with stacks of microchannels fabricated by chemical etching in silicon with Potassium Hydroxide or Hydrogen Fluoride. After etching, wafers may be stacked together and bonded through other processes such as diffusion bonding in order to create more complex structures or simply capped with another piece of material, commonly transparent like Pyrex, in order to study flows through the channels more closely. Grommol (1994) presents several examples of micro heat exchanger passages fabricated using this method are illustrated in Fig. 3.
2.3.2 Silicon Etching The most commonly used etching processes for the creation of microchannels in silicon are ones using KOH. Varying the concentration of the KOH or the process temperature can affect channel attributes such as roughness as seen in studies by Kang et al. (1998).
2.3.3 Materials The most common material used for etching micro and mini channels for use in heat exchangers is Silicon. Silicon is a good conductor and has a very useful property where the etching aspect ratio can be controlled to yield up to a 600:1 channel depth versus width [Harpole and Eninger (1991)]. As can be seen in Figures 4a and 4b taken from Kang et al (1998), by varying parameters such as KOH concentration and temperature surface roughness of the etched channels can be drastically effected [Kang et al (1998)].
Figure 4a Roughness plots of etched silicon surfaces at 50C and different KOH concentrations: A- 20%, B- 35%, C- 50%, D- 65%
2.3.4 Tolerances Burger et al (2001) were able to achieve a channel width tolerance of +/- 0.005 mm on their channels etched to a width of 0.250 mm about 2% of the target channel width.
Figure 4b Roughness plot of etched silicon surfaces at 90C and different KOH concentrations: A - 20%, B - 35%, C - 50%, D - 65%
2.4 LIGA LIGA is a German acronym for lithography, molding, and electroplating. X-Rays are projected through a mask onto an X-ray sensitive photo-resist material that has been bonded to a conductive substrate material. The X-ray mask enables the projection to take the shape of the final desired array design. The conductive substrate and photo-resist material are then submerged in a Nickel ion solution bath. The Nickel in solution is electroplated onto the photo-resist material in the desired arrangement that was set with the X-ray. The nickel structure can then be used in its own right or as a mold for other materials. This process may be repeated several times and the final products bonded together to create more complex builds. The structures in a version of a LIGA manufactured heat exchanger can be seen in Figs. 5a and 5b. This structure is referred to as a pin fin micro heat exchangers by the authors Marques and Kelly (2004). The pin-fin arrays in Fig. 5a and 5b were developed for the blades of gas turbine engines, which require more efficient methods of cooling as technology allows for an increase in turbine inlet temperatures.
Figures 6 and 7, from Kmper et al (1997), show a micro-mixer array and compact stack heat exchanger both manufactured with LIGA processes. The prototype in Fig. 7 consisted of 4 layers stacked opposite to each other with channels 300m wide and 30m apart. This is a good example of small heat exchangers with very efficient heat transfer properties used for the fast thermal control of chemical reactions.
2.4.1 Materials The final step of the LIGA process is the electrodepostion of a metal onto the PMMA (poly methyl methacrylate) or, as in the case of Marques and Kelly (2004), Su-8 2075 structure. A common material that is used is Nickel. Nickel is relatively cheap and is easy to etch out if the final product is meant to be used as a mold for some other material. However, any material capable of being electodeposited can be used in the LIGA process [Kmper et al (1997)]. 3 Copyright 2006 by ASME 4 Copyright #### by ASME
Figure 5a Expanded view of the surface of gas turbine engine blade with micro pin-fin array for increased cooling, Marques and Kelly (2004).
Figure 5b Close up of micro pin-fin structures, Marques and Kelly (2004).
Figure 6 A nickel micro-mixer array, Kmper et al. (1997).
2.4.2 Tolerances Moran et al (2004) were able to achieve a tolerance of +/- 0.020 mm on channel dimensions of 0.10 mm hydraulic diameter.
3. Conclusions
Micro heat exchangers are becoming more important in todays advancing technological fields. The ability to handle high heat flux densities to control precise chemical reactions or cool the high-end computer processors is becoming more and more relevant to their efficient and safe operation. Micro heat exchangers which benefit from their high surface area to volume ratios will play an important role in many fields where thermal issues are becoming a critical problem to deal with than in the past. Manufacturing processes of today like micro machining, stereolithography, LIGA, and chemical etching will help drive the fabrication of these new micro heat exchangers as well as provide stepping stones for hopefully new and more exciting and efficient fabrication processes in the future.
Fig 7 Single layer of a micro-heat exchanger stack, Kmper et al (1997).
4. References
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5 Copyright 2006 by ASME 6 Copyright #### by ASME
Table 1 Details of the micro-heat exchanger geometries studied by various investigators. Author Channel Size Hydraulic Dia. (m) Material Process Harpole and Eninger (1991) 0.028e-3 Silicon Etching (KOH) Kang et al (1998) 0.067e-3 Silicon Etching (KOH) Price et al (1997) 0.078e-3 Silicon Etching (KOH) Kuan (1996) 0.1e-3 Silicon Etching (KOH) Burger et al. (2001) 0.25/0.53e-3 SiN Etching (KOH/HF) Freitag et al. (2000) 0.3-0.7e-3 Glass Etching (HF) Gromoll (1994) 0.32/0.64e-3 Silicon Etching (Anisotropic) Zhang et al. (2000) 0.05-.1e-3 Silicon Etching (DRIE)
Liu et al. (2005) 1.09e-3 SiC Hardened Gel Mold/StereoLithography Carman et al. (2002) 1.32/1.39e-3 SiCN Micro-Stereo Lithography
Moran et al. (2004) 0.10e-3 Nickel LIGA Harris et al. (2002) 0.2e-3 PMMA (Nickel mold) LIGA Harris et al. (2000) 0.15-0.25e-3 PMMA (Nickel mold) LIGA
Kang and Friedrich (1994) ~.080e-3 Copper Micro-Machining (Diamond)/Diffusion Bonding Halbritter et al. (2004) .082/.133/.2e-3 Base Metal Alloys Micro-Machining (Milling) Lee et al. (2003) 0.33e-3 PDMS PDMS Molding