Integrated nanotube microcooler for microelectronics applications

Providing effective and compact heat removal solutions is an essential element of the electronics packaging approach and its importance increases as the trend in the electronics industry moves towards higher packaging density. Many new thermal removal techniques have been developed. Liquid cooling has been considered as one of the very promising solutions. Its major advantages include the high heat transfer coefficient and possible wafer-level integration with chips. The present work reports the integration of nanotubes which have extremely high thermal conductivity in comparison to conventional microchannel coolers for enhancement in cooling capability. By using lithography techniques, chemical vapor deposition and adhesive bonding; a microcooler with two-dimensional nanotube fins was manufactured. Though it has fairly low cooling capability at the present stage, this new cooler has shown promise in the experimental characterization. Additionally, further modifications have been proposed and some possible reliability concerns were sited.