Thermal management of microelectronics with electrostatic fluid accelerators

Optimal thermal management is critical in modern consumer electronics. Typically, a thermal management scheme for an electronic system involves several physical principles. In many cases, it is highly desirable to enhance heat transfer at the solid-air interface while maintaining small size of the thermal management solution. The enhancement of heat transfer at the solid-air interface can be achieved by several physical principles. One principle that is getting increased attention of thermal management design engineers is electrostatic fluid acceleration. This paper discusses recent breakthroughs in state-of-the-art of electrostatic fluid accelerators (EFAs). The paper compares and contrasts EFAs’ design and performance metrics to those of other airside cooling technologies used in small form factor applications. Since the energy efficiency, flow rate, and acoustic emissions are highly influenced by the scale of the airside cooling devices, the paper also presents the analysis of fundamental effect of scaling laws on heat transfer performance. The presented review and analysis helps drawing conclusions regarding achievable comparative performance and practicality of using different design approaches and physical principles for different applications.