Fluid and thermal analysis of a microchannel electronics cooler using computational fluid dynamics

Fluid flow and heat transfer of a microchannel electronics cooler is analyzed using computational simulation and experimental validation. The microchannel cooling technique appears to be a viable solution to high heat rejection requirements of today’s high-power electronic devices, such as diode lasers. The thermal design of these small electronics cooling devices is a key issue that needs to be optimized in order to keep the system temperatures at certain levels. However, this optimization should balance the heat transfer with pressure drop through the system by modifying the geometrical design. This technique is used in optimizing the performance of a microchannel cooler for high-power semiconductor diode laser applications in this study. The results show that symmetrical design modifications improve both pressure drop and heat transfer significantly, while resizing the channels may affect slightly.