A source-integrated micropump for cooling of high heat flux electronics

This paper presents an overview of the progress in the design of a planar ion drag micropump. The micropump is tested in a loop system. The pump performance was analyzed with regard to three parameters: pump channel height, electrode spacing, and distance between the electrode stages. HFE 7100 (3M´s heat transfer liquid) was pumped in channels of depths 100 μm, 220 μm, 350 μm and 450 μm. The electrode gaps were tested at 20 μm and 50 μm while the distance between electrode stages was set to 80 μm, 100 μm and 200 μm. Experimental results were checked against a simplified numerical model and satisfactory agreement was found. The pumping results are very encouraging as a flow rate of up to 7.92 mL/min was achieved at an applied voltage of 500 V. It was also shown that channel height has a very significant effect on the pumping performance. However, an optimum design might involve a compromise between pump mass flow rate and efficiency.