STTR Phase I: Innovative Two-Phase Cooling with Micro Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipes for High Power Density Electronics

这一小型企业技术转让(STTR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是为移动设备开发改进的热冷却解决方案。如今的冷却解决方案往往无法满足5G/6G电信的需求，供热速率高达4G技术的10倍。即使是目前的高性能5G手机也会大幅增加热负荷，进而增加智能手机的外部触摸温度，并经常触发手机减速。建议的技术可以改善冷却，从而提高性能，而不受性能节流的限制。增强尖端移动设备的热冷却能力可能有助于5G/6G电信、虚拟和增强现实、人工智能、自动驾驶汽车和大数据应用的广泛采用。这个小企业技术转移(STTR)第一阶段项目开发了一种新的基于脉动热管的被动微型两相冷却，它由平板中的微通道环路组成，其中蛇形通道中的冷却剂通过蒸汽气泡泵送液体和蒸汽来传输更高的热负荷。该设计利用复杂的自感应脉动，通过使用局部障碍物来增强脉动热管的流体运动，以创建分布的气泡成核点，从而更好地执行传递更大量热量的工作。同样的障碍物将被用来改善微热传递过程。该项目将微流控技术引入脉动热管。拟议项目的研究目标是展示在相同薄型因素下，与竞争对手的冷却技术(蒸汽室)相比，热性能有实质性的改善。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is the development of improved thermal cooling solutions for mobile devices. Cooling solutions today are often unable to meet the demands of 5G/6G telecommunications with thermal heating rates up to 10 times that of 4G technologies. Even current high performance 5G mobile phones have greatly increasing thermal loads, which, in turn, increase the external touch temperature of the smart phone and often trigger the phone to slow down its speed. The proposed technology may result in improved cooling for increased performance without limitations of performance throttling. Enhancing thermal cooling capabilities of cutting edge mobile devices may help enable widespread adoption of 5G/6G telecommunications, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and big data applications.This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project develops a new passive micro-two-phase cooling based on pulsating heat pipes, which consist of a loop of microchannels in a flat plate in which oscillations of the coolant in the serpentine are generated by vapor bubbles to pump liquid and vapor to transport higher heat loads. The design harnesses complex self-induced pulsations to better perform the work of transferring larger quantities of heat by enhancing the pulsating heat pipe's fluid motion with localized obstructions to create distributed bubble nucleation points. The same obstructions will be used to improve the micro-thermal heat transfer processes. The project introduces microfluidics to pulsating heat pipes. The research objectives of the proposed project are to demonstrate substantial improvements in thermal performance compared to competing cooling technology (vapor chambers) at the same thin form factors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.