High flux thermal management with CMOS compatible microstructured surfaces

Abstract

We demonstrated an enhancement in critical heat flux (CHF) of ∼160% on the microstructured surfaces. The fabrication process used for making the structures is CMOS-compatible and can be integrated into semiconductor processing. A simple force-balance-based model for CHF was developed and shows excellent agreement with the experimental observations. Based on the model predication, a potential surface design to achieve ultra high CHF is further suggested in the paper. This study shows exciting new insights into achieving high CHF with microstructures and provides design guidelines for new surface technologies with high heat removal capability for advanced thermal management.