Skip to main content
Log in

Thermal performance of a vapor chamber for electronic cooling applications

  • Published:
Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The heat transfer performance of a vapor chamber and its effectiveness in the cooling of electronic devices are experimentally and theoretically investigated in the present work. The power transistor in the circuit board usually operates with electric power that ranges from 15 W to 100 W, which is the heat input to the simulated processor. The heat flux varies between 3300 and 22000 W/m2. The simulated processor is cooled with the forced and induced air cooling methods with and without the use of the vapor chamber. Results show a maximum temperature decrease of 26 % and a maximum increase in the convective heat transfer coefficient of 36 %. The minimum value of the thermal resistance through the vapor chamber and the total thermal resistance is 0.195 and 0.82 °C/W, respectively. The experimental results are compared with the ANSYS predicted values.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. G. P. Peterson, An introduction to heat pipes modeling, testing, and applications, First Ed., John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, USA (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  2. P. D. Dunn and D. A. Reay, Heat Pipes, Fourth Ed., Pergamon Press, New York, USA (1982).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Z. J. Zuo and T. N. Mark, Combined pulsating and capillary heat pipe mechanism for cooling of high heat flux electronics, 28th IEEE Conf. on Military Comm., 4 (2009) 1012–1021.

    Google Scholar 

  4. A. Ali, Advanced heat pipe thermal solutions for higher power notebook computers, United States Patent 7857037.

  5. J. Yun and E. Kroliczek, Operation of capillary pumped loops and loop heat pipes, Thermalolly (2002) 201–208.

    Google Scholar 

  6. M. Ghajar, J. Darabi and N. A. Crews, Hybrid CFDmathematical model for simulation of a MEMS loop heat pipe for electronics cooling applications, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (2004) 15–313.

    Google Scholar 

  7. H. Xie and M. Aghazadeh, The use of heat pipes in the cooling of portables with high power packages, IEEE Journal Electronic Components and Technology Conference (1995) 906–913.

    Google Scholar 

  8. J. Thayer, Analysis of a heat pipe assisted heat sink, 28th IEEE Conf. on Military Comm., 4 (2009) 1022–1032.

    Google Scholar 

  9. R. S. Prasher, A simplified conduction based modeling scheme for design sensitivity study of thermal solution utilizing heat pipe and vapour chamber technology, IEEE Electron. Packaging, 125 (3) (2003) 378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. X. Luo, R. Hu, T. Guo, X. Zhu, W. Chen, Z. Mao and S. Liu, Low thermal resistance LED light source with vapor chamber coupled fin heat sink, Proc. of 60th Electronic Components and Technology Conf., Las Vegas, NV, USA (2010) 1347–1352.

    Google Scholar 

  11. P. Naphon, S. Wongwises and S. Wiriyasart, Application of two-phase vapor chamber technique for hard disk drive cooling of PCs, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 40 (2013) 32–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. M. C. Tsai, S. W. Kang and K. V. Paiva, Experimental studies of thermal resistance in a vapor chamber heat spreader, Applied Thermal Engineering, 56 (2013) 38–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. L. Kai, Low thermal resistance LED light source with vapor chamber coupled with fin heat sink, Proc. of Electronic Components Technology Conf. (2010) 1347–1352.

    Google Scholar 

  14. S. Lee, Optimum design and selection of heat sinks, Proc. of 11th IEEE Semi-Thermal Symposium, San Jose, California, USA (1995) 48–50.

    Google Scholar 

  15. R. W. Keyes, Heat transfer in forced convection through fins, IEEE Transactions on Electronic Devices, 9 (1984) 1218–1221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Bartilson, Air jet Impingement on a miniature pin fin heat sink, ASME paper number 91-WA-EEP-41 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  17. N. Ahammed, L. G. Asirvatham and S. Wongwises, Entropy generation analysis of graphene-alumina hybrid nanofluid in multiport minichannel heat exchanger coupled with thermoelectric cooler, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 103 (2016) 1084–1097.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. N. Ahammed, L. G. Asirvatham and S. Wongwises, Thermoelectric cooling of electronic devices with nanofluid in a multiport minichannel heat exchanger, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 74 (2016) 81–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. S. W. Chi, Heat pipe Theory and Practice, McGraw Hill, New York, USA (1976).

    Google Scholar 

  20. C. A. Busse, Theory of the ultimate heat transfer of cylindrical heat pipes, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 16 (1973) 169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. J. E. Levy, Ultimate heat pipe performance, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 16 (1969) 717–723.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. T. P. Cotter, Heat pipe startup dynamics, Proc. of SAE Thermionic Conversion Specialist Conference, Palo Alto, CA. (1967).

    Google Scholar 

  23. X. Ji, J. Xu and A. M. Abanda, Copper foam based vapor chamber for high heat flux dissipation, Experimental Thermal Fluid Science, 40 (2012) 93–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. R. Wang, J. Wang and T. Chang, Experimental analysis for thermal performance of a vapor chamber applied to high-performance servers, Heat Pipes and Vapour Chambers, 19 (4) (2011) 353–360.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lazarus Godson Asirvatham.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Youngsuk Nam

B. Jefferson Raja Bose is an Assistant Professor in Karunya Institute of Technology and Science, Coimbatore. He obtained his Master of Engineering from Anna University Chennai in 2001. He is doing his research in the field of Heat transfer, CFD, and Nanofluids.

Nizar Ahammed is currently pursuing his Ph.D. from Karunya University, Coimbatore, India. He did his undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum, Karnataka in 2007 and post-graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering (Thermal Systems) from Calicut University, Kerala in 2012. His area of research includes electronic cooling with thermoelectric cooler coupled with nanofluid cooled minichannel heat exchanger. He worked as a JRF in a DST-SERB, an India-funded project.

Lazarus Godson Asirvatham is currently an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology at Karunya University, Coimbatore, India. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering from Anna University, Chennai, India in 2011. His research interests include Nanofluid Heat Transfer, Heat Pipes for Electronic Cooling Applications, Thermoelectric Cooling, Mini and Micro Channel Heat Transfer and Thermal Energy Storage. Professor Godson is the Head of the Centre for Research in Material Science and Thermal Management (CRMS&TM).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bose, J.R., Ahammed, N. & Asirvatham, L.G. Thermal performance of a vapor chamber for electronic cooling applications. J Mech Sci Technol 31, 1995–2003 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-017-0349-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-017-0349-0

Keywords

Navigation