Thermo-fluid characteristics of a minichannel heat sink cooled with liquid metal

Liquid metals, such as Galinstan, a gallium, indium and tin eutectic, may be exploited for enhanced cooling of microelectronics due to their favorable thermophysical properties. Hodes et al. [1] discussed the properties of Galinstan compared with those of water and provided a first-order model for minimizing the total thermal resistance of Galinstan-based heat sinks under form factor and pressure drop constraints. This paper, as a follow up, describes the fabrication and assembly of water-based microchannel and Galinstan-based minichannel heat sinks.¹ The authors also discussed the flow loop has been designed and commissioned to characterize the heat sinks and report flow and thermal resistance data and compare them to theory.