Experimental Characterization of a Two-Phase Heatsink

Abstract

There is a continuous trend to increase power density in power electronics while traditional cooling methods like heat sinks cannot cope with this increase anymore. Cooling with two-phase thermosyphons allows to cool higher heat density without pump. Standard ther-mosyphon technology only works in vertical position because it uses gravity to move the phase changing fluid and has a fixed shape that cannot retrofit heatsinks in current product designs. This is a limitation for many products that would need a complete redesign to accommodate for a new air flow configuration. Hence, there is a need for thermosyphons working in vertical and possibly horizontal orientations and that can retrofit heatsinks, with performances allowing increase in power density. This article presents the experimental characterization of a new type of thermosyphon to fulfill these constraints