The Optimum Thermal Design of Microchannel Heat Sinks

Wen Zhimin and Choo Kok Fah

DSO National Laboratories
20 Science Park Drive, Singapore 118230

Abstract model to determine the optimum design parameters for such a

A thermal resistance model was set up to analyse the
flow and heat transfer in microchannel heat sinks. Laminar,
turbulent, developed and developing flow and heat transfer
were considered in the analysis.
Optimum thermal design of the heat sink was then
studied using this model and a self-developed software, where
the influences of heat sink's channel aspect ratio, fin width to
channel width ratio and the channel width on the
performance of heat sink under three flow constraints:
constant coolant volume flow rate, constant pressure drop and
constant pumping power, were extensively investigated over
wide flow and heat transfer regimes.
This paper documents the modelling or analysis
methodologies and the results of the investigation which
include guidelines for the optimum thermal design of
microchannel heat sinks.
Introduction
The rapid development of electronics packaging
technology has given rise to the need for innovative, small
scale and highly effective cooling techniques. There is strong
requirement now for these cooling techniques to be able to
dissipate heat flux in the order of 100 Wlcm' or more (e.g. a
Photon Source X-Ray radiation is expected to have heat flux
exceeding 14,000 W/cm2 [l]).
In the race to extend the capabilities of conventional
cooling techniques to meet these requirements, Tuckerman
and Pease [2] applied the micro-fabrication techniques for
micro-electronic devices to the fabrication of microchannel
heat sinks in 1981. They managed to produce large aspect
ratio heat sinks with channel width in the order of 50 pm on
the back of the IC chips.
Subsequent thermal testing revealed that power
dissipation capability of up to 790 W/cm2 can be achieved
with such a heat sink (with water as coolant), while
maintaining the chip temperature rise at only 71°C. This
innovative cooling technique attracted great attention and
extensive theoretical and experimental studies have since
been conducted by various researchers to further assess its
performance and potential for actual applications.
Philips [3] in 1990, set up a thermal resistance model to
assess the performance of the microchannel heat sinks within
the laminar and turbulent regime of hydrodynamically
developed or developing flow. A computer code was
developed for the analysis and results revealed that thermal
resistance smaller than 0. l°C/(W/cm2)can be achieved.
Salamn [4] in 1989, implemented a quasi-two-
dimensional differential equation to obtain the optimum fin
thickness and channel width of the heat sinks, while Knight
et al. [SI developed a non-dimensional thermal resistance
heat sinks. Choquette et al. [6], Sasaki et al. [7],Missaggia
et al. [8] and Landram 191 have also done extensive thermal
optimisation studies for this heat sink. However, it is noted
that, their optimum results were normally obtained under a
limited geometrical range (for the heat sink) with some
parameters fixed on a specific flow and heat transfer regime.
Contradictions were also found among the conclusions.
T h s paper documents the optimum thermal design
studies done for the microchannel heat sink using a thermal
resistance model and a self-developed software. The studies
were conducted over wide flow and heat transfer regimes
using large heat sink's geometrical (or design parameters)
ranges. Effects of heat sink's channel aspect ratio, fin width
to channel width ratio and the channel width on the total
thermal resistance of the heat sink under three flow
constraints: constant coolant volume flow rate, constant
pressure drop and constant pumping power will be presented.
Thermal Resistance Model
Fig. 1 shows the schematic drawing of a microchannel
heat sinks comprising of an adiabatic cover plate and an IC
substrate with microchannels fabricated on the reverse side.
The heat generated by the IC chips is dissipated away by the
coolant flowing within the channels.
Fig. 1 Schematic drawing of the microchannel heat sinks
Microchannel heat sinks are defined by its height, H,
length, L and width, W and its channel height, H,, channel
width, W,, and width of the fin wall, W,. The base of the
heat sinks has a thickness, t and a heat load, Q.
The thermal resistance between the channel entrance and
the substrate surface is defined as:
where Koa is the total thermal resistance, T,d,, is the

07803-4157-0/97 $10.00 01997 IEEE

123 1997 IEEUCPMTElectronic Packaging Technology Conference
hottest temperature on the surface of the heat sink and Th is
the temperature of the coolant at the inlet. Due to the single m=:
direction coolant flow, the hottest temperature should be
located at the end of the channel. where k,is the conductivity of the heat sink.
Assuming that the heat load is applied uniformly on the By introducing Nusselt number Nu,
base of the heat sink, the total thermal resistance, hodwould hD
thus be the sum of the bulk-temperature-rise, convective, NU=-
constriction and conduction thermal resistances, expressed as: Kf
where Kf is tlhe conductivity of the coolant, the convective
Rtotal = Rbulk + Rconv + Rconstr Rcond (2) thermal resistance can now be written as:
To simpllfy the expressions to be defined, two 1 1 + p- 2a
geometrical ratios are now introduced: aspect ratio, a and fin Rconv = NuKf(WL) - 1+2aq l + aWC
(14)
width to channel width ratio, f3 where, The constriction thermal resistance, RONis due to the
need to funnell the heat from the base to the fin of the heat
(3) sink. It can be:obtained using [3],
The bulk-temperature-rise thermal resistance, is the
resistance between the channel entrance and the exit defined
r
as:
m m
‘bulk,out - ‘in - 1
Rhulk = (4)
Q Pf CPf G
where pf and Cp, are the density and specific heat of the r 1
coolant respectively and G is the coolant’s volume flow rate
given as:
G = nH,WcV (5)
The conduction thermal resistance, Rondthrough the
where n is the total channel number given as n=W/(Ww+Wc) heat sink can be obtained simply by using,
and V is the velocity of the coolant inside the channel.
1
Introducing the hydraulic diameter, D and Reynolds
number, Re,

D= 4HcWc - kc wc Careful observation of the equations above would reveal

2(Hc+Wc) l + a that all four components of the total thermal resistance have
the area term, WL. Redefining the total thermal resistance as
Re=- P f W (7) the temperature difference against unit area heat flux, Rl(tota~,
Pf m m

where pf is the viscosity of working fluid. Thus, the bulk-

temperature-rise thermal resistance can be written as:
WL
L - 2- 1+p The total thernnal resistance can then be summarised as:
Rhulk = (8)
CP, Pf (WRe 1+ a L 2 1+p
The convective thermal resistance, KO,,is defined as: Rtotal = ___--
Cpfpf Re l + a
1 +- 1 1 + p 2a
Rconv =- (9) W
C
Ueff
where h is the convective heat transfer coefficient and A e is~
the effective area available for the convective heat transfer.
According to the fin (or extended surfaces) theory, &E can be WC

written as:
A,, = mwc+ 2@c) (10)
+- t
where q is the fin efficiency. And for fin with insulated tip, kS
This total thermal resistance is a function of the coolant
and heat sink material properties, the flow and heat transfer
status and the heat sink’s geometry.
and For a given heat sink, where the coolant, the heat sink’s

124 1997 IEEUCPMT ElectronicPackagingTechnology Conference

dimension (t, L and w>
and the material are specified, its Nusselt Number
optimum thermal design is achieved by minimising the total For laminar thermally developing and hydrodynamically
thermal resistance by varying the geometrical parameters (a, fully developed flow, Nusselt number in rectangular channel
and WJ and determining the ideal flow and heat transfer with four walls subjected to a constant heat flux is obtained
status within specified constant inlet flow constraints (i.e. by the polynomial curve fits written as following:
coolant volume flow rate, pressure drop or pumping power).
Friction factor, f and Nusselt number, Nu required during Nu = Bo + B, lnx' + B, ln2x' + B, ln3 X' + B, ln4'X (22)
the calculation of flow conditions are determined by using the where x' is the thermodynamic entrance length given by
method shown below ([3] and [6]). x'=(L/D)/(RePrf), and Prf is the Prandtl number of the
coolant. The coefficient B; are shown in Table 3.
Friction Factor Table 3 Coefficients for developing laminar Nusselt number
For laminar developing flow, the friction factor, f
satisfies the following polynomial fit, I al0.l I a=1.0 I a=2.0
Bn I 5.3570 I 3.5887 I 4.1289
f Re = A, + A, lnx' + A, ln2x' + A, ln3x' + A, in4 x" (19) B1 I -0.0812 I 0.0441 I 0.2150
where x' is the hydrodynamic entrance length given by B2 I -0.1337 I -0.0417 I 0.02514
x+=(L/D)/Re. The coefficients, A; are shown in Table 1. I Bq I -0.0471 I -0.0326 I -0.0248 I
Table 1 Coefficients for developing flow friction factor
I I a=1.0 I a=2.0 I a4.0 I a210.10.1 I
A0 14.206 15.510 19.099 23.920
B2 -0.0505 -0.0289 -0.2952
Ai 0.1725 0.2265 -0.445 -1.743
B3 -0.0353 -0.0327 -0.0588
I A2 I 0.1366 I 0.1539 I 0.00786 I -0.0562 I To simulate the real case, in which three walls are
I&I 0.456 I 0.0479 I 0.0393 I 0.0401 I heated, Phillips [3] suggests that the Nusselt number be
calculated using:
For fully developed laminar flow which occurs when x"
is greater than 1, the friction factor, f can be obtained through
[31,
where, x'=w denotes fully-developed heat transfer.
f Re = 24(1- 1.3553~-'+ 1.9467a-' - 1.70126, The Nusselt numbers for 3-side heated wall for various
(20) aspect ratios have been calculated and are listed in Table 4
+0.9564a-, - 0.2537cC5)
[lo].
For rectangular turbulent flow, the friction factor, f is
Table 4 Nusselt number of 3-sides heated channel
obtained based on that of circular channel as follows:
f = A(Re,,)B
where,
1.01612
A = 0.0929 + ~
6.072 3.169
x/D 5.393
0.31930 0.4 4.885 5.0 3.636
B = -0.26800 - ~

x/D 0.5 4.505 10 4.252

PfVD.5, 0.7 3.991 00 5.385
Re,, =-
Pf 1.0 3.556
2 111 1 For laminar thermally fully developed flow which occurs
D = [- + --(2 - -)ID
3 24a a when the thermodynamic entrance length, x' is larger than
0.2, the Nusselt number is obtained by using [lo]:
Laminar or turbulent flow regimes are distinguished by
the critical Reynolds number determined from Table 2 [3]. NU = 8.235 (1- 2.04216' + 3.0853a-' - 2 . 4 7 6 5 ~ ~
Table 2 Critical Reynolds number +1.0578a4 - 0.1861~~-~) (24)

Aspect ratio Critical Reynolds number For turbulent flow condition, Nusselt number can be
a=1.0 2200 obtained by [111,
a10.2 or a250 2500
other a Linear interpolation Nu = 0.012[1.0 + (D / L)2'3](Reo.87-280)Pr0.4 (25)

125 1997 IEEVCPMTElectronic PackagingTechnologyConference

Total Thermal Resistance And Flow Constraints
Three different flow constraints were considered during
the calculation of the total thermal resistance. They were:
constant coolant volume flow rate, G, constant pressure drop,
AP and constant pumping power, POW.
For a constant coolant volume flow rate flow constraints
where:
G = nHcWcV (26)
velocity is known and thus the pressure drop, pumping power
and total thermal resistance can be easily determined from
the equations defined.
For a constant pressure drop flow constraints where:
L pv2
AP = 4f -(-)
D 2
Velocity, V was iterated from equations (7), (19)-(21) and
(27) using Newton iteration method with the aid of a self
developed computer program.
For a constant pumping power flow constraints where:
POW = APG
Velocity7 V was iterated from equations (7), (19)-(21)’ (26)’
Comparison of the results obtained show close
agreement. (Trends of components of the total resistance
against increasing channel width are also shown in Fig. 2.)
Optimum Design of Microchannel Heat Sink
In order to detennine the optimum thermal design
parameters for microchannel heat sink, the three different
flow constraints were studied separately using the same heat
sinks and cooldantmentioned above. In addition, three main
variables a,f3 and W, which when varied will influence the
heat sinks’ performances were also studied separately. The
default values of these variables when anyone of them is
varied are a4.0,p=l.O and Wc=lOOpm.
(27) Constant Voluime Flow Rate
Effects of the aspect ratio, fin width to channel width
ratio and channel width on the total thermal resistance when
the volume flow rate was fixed at G=3.0e-5m3/s, are shown in
Fig. 3(a), (b) and (c).
(28)
I \\
\‘ Pumaina Power I
I

(27) and (28).

In both constant pressure drop and constant pumping
power flow constraints, once the velocity, V is known, the
pressure drop, pumping power and total thermal resistance
can be easily determined.

Validation of Thermal Resistance Model

The thermal resistance and the analysis methodologies
Total Thermal Resistance +
defined above have been validated against Philips’s [3] and
Choquette’s [6] results (refer to Fig. 2), where a heat sink
having dimensions L=W=lcm, t=lOOpm, a4.0 and p=l.O 0 . O l ~ : I :: : : : : : I : I : : : : c 100
0 5 10 15 20
was analysed at constant pressure drop flow condition of Aspect Ratio
AP=68.9kPa. The heat sink used was made from silicon with
thermal conductivity of 123 W/mK and the coolant used was Fig. 3(a) Effect of Aspect Ratio
water, where, ~ ~ 9 9lkg/m3,
7 . Cp~4179J/kgK,k~0.60W/mK, under Constant Volume Flow Rate
@3.91e-4kg/ms and P r ~ 6 . 2 1 .

A Choquette’s
Philip’s

.-
U) --
% ::
R-Conduction
- lx Total Thermal Resistance

/- R Constriction
0.01 -i+i+tw:: I I:::: I : : : I I : : : : I : : : : I : : : : I : : : : + 100
0 .OOOl -I : : : : I : : : : I : : : : I : : : : I : : : : I 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
0 100 200 300 400 500 Fin Width to Channel Width Ratio
Channel Width (p m)
Fig. 3(b) Effect of Fin Width to Channel Width Ratio
Fig. 2 Validation of the Thermal Resistance Calculation under Constant Volume Flow Rate

126 1997 IEEUCPMT Electronic PackagingTechnology Conference

 10000

_ _ _ _ Laminar loo f
t
loooo
-Turbulent

i
i
Pumping Power

Re
L
1000 2 1000

-....---
---- f
0.1

Total Thermal Resistance

- - _ - _- - _
0.014L-i: : I : : : : I : I : : I : : : : : ; : -:-I
100 0.01
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 5 10 15 20
Channel Width (pn) Aspect Ratio

Fig. 3(c) Effect of Channel Width Fig. 4(a) Effect of Aspect Ratio
under Constant Volume Flow Rate under Constant Pressure Drop

Fig. 3(a) shows that under constant volume flow rate, 100 10000
increasing the aspect ratio, increases the flow area which ---- Laminar
decreases the flow velocity and the heat transfer effect (or Power -Turbulent
increases the total thermal resistance) in the turbulent regime.
While in the laminar regime, the total thermal resistance is I
not significantly affected by any increase in the aspect ratio
because convective thermal resistance is no longer a function
of Reynolds Number.
Fig. 3(b) reveals that the fin width to channel width ratio
has little effect on the total thermal resistance.
While analysing the effect of channel width on the total . _ _ _ _ . _ . ..._..__...._---..-_..-
_ . -Resistance
.--.-
I 1000 2

thermal resistance, both a and I3 were fixed, which made

Reynolds number, Re = - PfW-
Pf
--2PfG - l + P a constant. In
PfW l + a ’
order to analyse the effects of channel width in both flow
regimes, another volume flow rate was chosen (G=l.Oe-
o
0.01 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 I

Fin Width to Channel Width Ratio

1.2 1.4 1.6

5m3/s). Fig. 4 0 ) Effect of Fin Width to Channel Width Ratio

Since both laminar and turbulent flow regime have a under Constant Pressure Drop
constant Nusselt number due to fix aspect ratio or Reynolds
number, increasing W, increases the hydraulic diameter D 10
which decreases the heat transfer coefficient and increases the
total thermal resistance.
It is noted that for the constant volume flow rate :I
constraint, no absolute minimum total thermal resistance
value exists. Although the total thermal resistance within the
turbulent flow regime is lower, the high pumping power 5 g1;:
L 1:

required makes operation in the turbulent flow regime

undesirable. Thus operation in the laminar flow regime is .-
5$ ::.-
recommended under a constant volume flow constraint. In 3 o,l .
. 7
: 1000
addition, heat sink geometry should also satisfy a25.0 and Total Thermal Resistance ii
0.2@<0.6.

Constant Pressure Drop

Fig. 4(a), (b) and (c) show the effect of varying the aspect O.O1 ’
0 100 200 300 400 500
ratio, fin width to channel width ratio and channel width on Channel Width (pm)
the total thermal resistance under the constant pressure drop
flow constraint. Fig. 4(c) Effect of Channel Width
under Constant Pressure Drop

127 1997 IEEUCPMT ElectrmicPackaging TechnologyConference

 Fig. 4(a) shows that when the pressure drop is fixed at
200kPa, increasing a increases the coolant flow rate through
the channels and improves the heat transfer, which reduces
the total thermal resistance.
Fig. 4 0 ) shows the influence of the fin width to channel
width ratio on the total thermal resistance. Since pressure
drop is a function of velocity and hydraulic diameter, fixing
the aspect ratio and the channel width to analyse the effect of
fin width to channel width ratio resulted in a constant
Reynolds number. In order to analyse the effects of both
turbulent and laminar flow regimes, the pressure drop was
fixed at 68.9 and 4OOkPa instead.
Results of the analysis show that the fin width to channel
width ratio has little effect on the total thermal resistance and
pumping power because its variation under constant pressure
drop only affects the fin efficiency and effective area.
Fig. 4(c) shows the effect of the channel width on the
total thermal resistance when the pressure drop is 68.9kPa. It
is noted that in the laminar flow regime, there is a "local"
minimum total thermal resistance. However, this value is
larger than the total thermal resistance in the turbulent
regime. Since pumping power required is lower in the
laminar flow regime, further analysis to determine the
achieved when a=15,p=0.5 and Wc=65pm. At this optimum
condition, the total thermal resistance was 0.073 OC/W/cm*,
the pumping power was 0.986W and the Reynolds number
was 310.3.
Constant Pumping Power
Fig. 6(a), (b) and (c) show the effect of aspect ratio, fin
width to channel width ratio and channel width on the total
thermal resistance when the pumping power was fixed at
7.5W.
Fig. 6(a) shows that, as the aspect ratio increases, the
total thermal resistance in the laminar and turbulent flow
regime decreases. However increase in the fin width to
channel width ratio does not affect the total thermal
resistance greatly (refer to Fig. 6(b)).
Pumping Power
-
d
loo0

optimum design parameters for microchannel heat sink

operating in the laminar flow regime under constant pressure
drop condition will be meaningful. Total Thermal Resistance
Careful analysis of Fig. 4(a) revealed that when a
increases, the total thermal resistance in the laminar flow
regime decreases more quickly than that in the turbulent
0.01
regime. Thus, there is a possibility of obtaining a minimum 0 5 10 15 20
total thermal resistance in the laminar region by increasing a Aspect Ratio
and decreasing p. Refer to Fig 5. However, due to practical
Fig. 6(a) Effect of Aspect Ratio
limitation, increase in the aspect ratio is limited by the
under Constant Pumping Power
thickness of the heat sink.
1 loo00

Pumping Power

-w
t
s
9
E

.o; 1
0
m
+
.-
a,

Ll
Total Thermal Resistance

0.01 0.01 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6

0 100 200 300 m 500
Channel Width (pn) Fin Width to Channel Width Ratio

Fig. 5 Minimum Resistance in Laminar Region
Effects of the geometrical parameters on the total thermal
resistance for 41a115, O.l<p<l.O and lO<W,l5OOpm were
extensively iterated and compared using the self-developed
software. The minimum total thermal resistance value was
Fig. 6(b) Effect of Fin Width to Channel Width Ratio
under Constant Pumping Power
Similar to the constant pressure drop flow condition, Fig.
6(c) shows that there is a local minimum total thermal
resistance value in the laminar region. However, it is not
possible to make the laminar flow total thermal resistance

128 1997 IEEWCPMT ElectronicPackagingTechnology Conference

smaller than the turbulent one because the turbulent flow
regime’s total thermal resistance increases nearly at the same
rate as, or even faster than, the laminar one as shown in Fig.
6(a) and (b).
Pumping Power
w
-
I
0.01
0 100 200 300 403 5M)
Channel Width (pn)
Fig. 6(c) Effect of Channel Width
under Constant Pumping Power
However, effects of geometrical parameters on the total
thermal resistance were extensively iterated and compared
again between 5lal15, O.llpll.0 and 10IWcllOOpm.The
minimum laminar total thermal resistance was achieved
when a=15, p=0.65 and Wc=50pm. At this optimum
condition, the total thermal resistance was 0.054 OC/W/cm2
and the Reynolds number was 539.13.
It is further noted that the optimum aspect ratio occurs at
the edge of the analysis limits. This contradicts Choquette’s
[6] findings where he obtained the minimum total thermal
resistance when the aspect ratio was at the middle of the
analysis limits.
Conclusion
Optimum thermal design studies were conducted for
microchannel heat sink using a thermal resistance model and
a self-developed software. Analysis were done over wide flow
and heat transfer regimes using large geometrical ranges.
And the effects of heat sink’s channel aspect ratio, fin width
to channel width ratio and the channel width on the total
thermal resistance of the heat sink under three flow
constraints: constant coolant volume flow rate, constant
pressure drop and constant pumping power were investigated
extensively. Results indicated that:
1. The fin width to channel width ratio should satisfy
0.51p10.65 in order to achieve low total thermal resistance.
2. Aspect ratio should be set as high as possible in the
laminar flow regime to reduce total thermal resistance. In
addition, setting aspect ratio at a215 should achieve optimum
total thermal resistance especially for constant pressure drop
and constant pumping power flow constraints.
3. Total thermal resistance as low as 0.054°C/W/cm2 is
achievable at a=15, p=0.65 and Wc=50pm under a constant
pumping power of 7.5W.
129
4. Although the total thermal resistance within the turbulent
flow regime is generally lower than that of the laminar flow
regime, the hgher pumping power required makes operation
in the turbulent regime undesirable.
5. For constant pressure drop flow constraint, optimum
thermal design can be achieved in the laminar regime by
adjusting the geometrical parameters.
Results also indicated that in order to derive the optimum
thermal design parameters for microchannel heat sinks,
extensive calculation by computer software over wide flow
and heat transfer regimes using large geometrical ranges
should be conducted.
References
1. U. S. Choi, C. S. Rogers and D. M. Mills, “High-
performance microchannel heat exchanger for cooling
high-heat-load X-Ray optical elements”, Micromechanical
Systems, ASME DSC-Vol.40, pp 83-89, 1992.
2. D. B. Tuckerman and R. E W. Pease, “High-performance
heat sinking for VLSI”, IEEE Electronic Device Letters,
Vol. EDL-2, N0.4, pp 126-129, May 1981.
3. R. J. Phllips, “Microchannel heat sinks”, Advances in
thermal modelling of electronic components and systems,
(Edited by A. Bar-Cohen and A. D. Kraus), pp 109-184,
ASME, New York, 1990.
4. V. J. Salman, “Convective heat transfer in
microchannels”, Journal of Electronic Materials, Vol. 18,
No.5, pp 611-618, 1989.
5. R. W. Knight, J. S. Gooding and D. J. Hall, “ Optimal
thermal design of forced convection heat sinks -
analytical”, Journal of Electronic Packaging, Vol. 113,
No.3, pp 313-321, 1991.
6. S. E Choquette, M. Faghri, etc, “Optimum design of
microchannel heat sinks”, Micro-electro-mechanical
systems (MEMS), ASME DSC-Vol.59, pp 115-126, 1996.
7. S. Sasaki and T. Kishmoto, “Optimal Structure for Micro-
grooved cooling fin for high-powered LSI devices”, Vol.
22, NO.25, pp 1332-1334, 1986.
8. L. J. Missaggia, J. N. Walpole, Z. L. Liau and R. J.
Phillips, “Microchannel heat sinks for two-dimensional
high power density diode laser arrays”, BEE Journal of
Quantum Electronics, QE 25, No. 9, pp 1988-1992, 1989.
9. C. S. Landram, “Computational model for optimising
longitudinal fin heat transfer in laminar internal flows”,
Heat Transfer in Electronic Equipment, ASME HTD-Vol.
171,1991.
10.R. K. Shah and A. L. London, “Laminar flow forced
convection in ducts”, Advances in heat transfer, pp 196-
223, Academic, New York, 1978.
11.VGnielinski, “New equations for heat and mass transfer
in turbulent pipe and channel flow”, International
Chemical Engineering, Vol. 16, pp 359-368, 1976.
1997 IEEWCPMT ElectronicPackaging Technology Conference