An internal convective heating technique for diffusion bonding arrayed microchannel architectures

Diffusion bonding cycle times can be a large factor in the production cost of metal microchannel devices. The challenge is to significantly minimize bonding cycle times through rapid heating and cooling within the bonding process. A novel method is described which takes advantage of the internal flow passages within microchannel devices for convective heat transfer during the bonding process. The internal convective heating (ICH) technique makes use of heated inert gas to provide the microchannel assembly with rapid and uniform heat input. Results demonstrate that the ICH technique is feasible, capable of producing microchannels with higher dimensional integrity and shorter bonding cycle times than traditional vacuum hot press methods. Results suggest that this may be due to smaller thermal gradients within microchannel devices during the ICH bonding cycle.