Low profile cooling solutions for advanced packaging based on ultra-thin heat pipe and piezo fan

In this paper, heat pipes and piezo fan, in combination as well as individually, has been proposed to provide very thin thermal solutions for high density electronic packaging. Ultra-thin heat pipes with thickness in range of 0.6 to 2 mm have been developed to transfer maximum heat load of 0.8 to 68W respectively. These heat pipes have been fabricated from copper-water combination with center fiber copper wick. Different type of piezo fans (low frequency flapping type, high flow rate type and high velocity impingement type) with small thickness ~ 0.8 to 2 mm, low power consumption and high reliability has been proposed and characterized. These fans can provide direct cooling system or can be combined with thin heat pipe to provide remote heat exchanger. Using these thin advanced thermal technologies, cooling modules with thermal capability of 3 to 10 W and maximum thickness of 0.7 to 6 mm respectively has been designed and characterized. In summary, thermal technologies and cooling modules developed in this research work will provide energy efficient and thin thermal management solutions for space conservative high density electronics.