Paper MN-TuP14
Assembly and Testing of Metal-based Microchannel Heat Exchange Devices

Tuesday, October 16, 2007, 6:00 pm, Room 4C

Since Tuckerman and Pease suggested the use of microfluidic devices for high heat flux removal in 1981, intense studies of heat transfer within microchannel devices at the mm to µm length scales have been carried out over the last two decades.^1,2 A majority of studies on microscale fluid flow and heat transfer have been conducted in Si-based microchannels because of the prevalence of Si microfabrication technology³ and the lack of suitable microfabrication techniques for metal-based microchannel devices. Metal-based microchannel heat exchangers (MHEs) have important potential advantages over Si-based devices due to their higher thermal conductivities and better mechanical characteristics. Realization of metal-based microdevices requires the fabrication of metallic high-aspect-ratio microscale structures (HARMS). We have demonstrated successful HARMS replication in Pb,⁴ Zn,⁵ Al,⁶ and Cu⁷ from HARMS mold inserts by compression molding. To form any functional metal-based microdevice from such replicated metallic HARMS, proper assembly and packaging are required. Recently, we have successfully bonded Al-based and Cu-based HARMS by using eutectic bonding with Al-Ge composite thin films as intermediate layers, utilizing the Al-Ge eutectic with an eutectic temperature of 424°C.⁸ We also evaluated the bond quality through measurements of the tensile bond strength in Al-based specimens.⁹ In this paper, we report successful assembly of Cu-based microchannel devices and investigation of their heat transfer characteristics. Further studies on the bond quality of Cu-based specimens will be carried out, and results of assembly of metal-based MHE prototypes and testing of their overall heat transfer performance will be reported.

¹D. B. Tuckerman, R. F. W. Pease, IEEE Elec. Dev. Let. EDL-2, 1981, 5, 126
²I. Mudawar, IEEE Trans. Components and Packaging Tech., 2001, 24, 122
³R. Chein, J. Chuang, Int. J. Thermal Sci., 2007, 46, 57
⁴D. M. Cao, W. J. Meng, K. W. Kelly, Microsyst. Technol., 2004, 10, 323
⁵D. M. Cao, D. Guidry, W. J. Meng, K. W. Kelly, Microsyst. Technol., 2003, 9(8), 559
⁶D. M. Cao, W. J. Meng, Microsyst. Technol., 2004, 10, 662
⁷D. M. Cao, J. Jiang, W. J. Meng, J. C. Jiang, W. Wang, Microsyst. Technol., 2007, 13, 503
⁸Fanghua Mei, J. Jiang, W. J. Meng, Microsyst. Technol., 2007, 13, 723
⁹Fanghua Mei, J. Jiang, W. J. Meng, Microsyst. Technol., 2007, DOI 10.1007/s00542-007-0407-0.