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Electronics Cooling — An Overview

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DOI: 10.5772/63321

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 Chapter 1

Introductory Chapter: Electronics Cooling—An

Overview

S M Sohel Murshed

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/63321

1. Introduction

Recent development in semiconductor and other other mini- and micro-scale electronic
technologies and continued miniaturization have led to very high increase in power density
for high-performance chips. Although impressive progress has been made during the past
decades, there remain serious technical challenges in thermal management and control of
electronics devices or microprocessors. The two main challenges are: adequate removal of ever
increasing heat flux and highly non-uniform power dissipation. According to a report of the
International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) Technology Roadmap [1], the
maximum projected power dissipation from high-performance microprocessor chips will
reach about 360 W by 2020. In fact, the micro- and power-electronics industries are facing the
challenge of removing very high heat flux of around 300 W/cm2 while maintaining the
temperature below 85°C [2]. Furthermore, due to increasing integration of devices, the power
dissipation on the chip or device is getting highly non-uniform as a peak chip heat flux can be
several times that of the surrounding area.
Conventional cooling approaches are increasingly falling apart to deal with the high cooling
demand and thermal management challenges of emerging electronic devices. Thus, high-
performance chips or devices need innovative techniques, mechanisms, and coolants with high
heat transfer capability to enhance the heat removal rate in order to maintain their normal
operating temperature. Unless they are cooled properly, their normal performance and longevity
can deteriorate faster than expected. In addition, the failure rate of electronic equipment increases
with increasing operating temperature. Reviews and analyses on research and advancement of
conventional and emerging cooling technologies reveal that microchannel-based forced
convection and phase-change cooling (liquid) are among the most promising techniques that
are capable of achieving very high heat removal rates [2–6].

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
2 Electronics Cooling

On the other hand, most of the cooling techniques cannot achieve the required performance
due to the limitations in heat transfer capabilities of traditional coolants such as air, oil, water,
and water/ethylene glycol/methanol mixtures, which inherently possess poor heat transfer
characteristics, particularly thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer coefficient
(HTC). For instance, in order to accommodate a heat flux of 100 W/cm2 at a temperature
difference of 50 K, it requires an effective HTC (including a possible area enlarging factor) of
20,000 W/m2K, which is usually not possible through free and forced convections of these
coolants [7]. Thus, there is always a desperate need to find cooling fluids with superior heat
transfer performance. Consequently, there are several recently emerged fluids, which can
potentially be used as advanced coolants. One such fluid is nanofluid—a new class of heat
transfer fluids, which are suspensions of nanometer-sized particles in conventional heat
transfer fluids such as water (W), ethylene glycol (EG), oils, and W/EG. Nanofluids were found
to possess considerably higher thermal properties, particularly thermal conductivity and
convective as well as boiling heat transfer compared to their base conventional fluids [8–12].
With highly desirable enhanced thermal properties, this new class of fluids can offer immense
benefits and potentials in wide range of applications including cooling of electronics and other
high-tech industries [12–14]. Recently, another novel class of fluids—termed “ionanofluids”
was proposed by our group [15–16]. Ionanofluids, which are suspensions of nanoparticles in
only ionic liquids, were also found to have superior thermal properties compared to their base
ionic liquids [15–17]. In addition to their unique features like green fluids and designable for
specific tasks, ionanofluids show great potential as advanced heat transfer fluids in cooling
electronics.

In this chapter, an overview of various cooling methods and traditional coolants for electronic
devices is presented first. Then, heat transfer properties and performances of new coolants are
summarised, followed by their potential in electronics cooling.

2. Cooling methods

Despite impressive progress made on electronic cooling systems in recent years, the required
high heat flux removal from the high-tech electronic devices remains inadequate and very
challenging. There are a number of cooling methods widely used in electronic industries. Based
on heat transfer effectiveness, the existing cooling modes can be classified into four general
categories which are [18]:
▪ Natural convection,

▪ Forced convection air cooling,

▪ Forced convection liquid cooling,

▪ Liquid evaporation.
Based on the approximate range of heat flux removal rate of these methods, it is known that
liquid evaporation is the best technique followed by the forced convections of liquids and then
 Introductory Chapter: Electronics Cooling—An Overview 3
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/63321

air [18]. However, forced air convection, which is widely used in cooling electronics such as
CPU of computing devices, has very low heat removal rate (though higher than radiation and
natural convection). As well known, besides heat removal mode, cooling fluids also play a
major role in overall cooling performance.

High-performance electronic devices and chips need innovative techniques and systems
design to enhance the heat removal rate in order to minimize their operating temperature and
maximize longevity. Traditional cooling approaches, consisting typically of air-cooled heat
sinks, are increasingly falling short in meeting the cooling demands of modern electronic
devices with high-powered densities. Thus, in recent years, various techniques for cooling
such electronics have been studied extensively and employed in various thermal management
systems. These include thermosyphons [19], heat pipes [20], electro-osmotic pumping [21],
microchannels [4, 5], impinging jets [22], thermoelectric coolers [23], and absorption refriger‐
ation systems [24]. These cooling techniques can be categorized into passive and active
systems. Passive cooling systems utilize capillary or gravitational buoyancy forces to circulate
the working fluid, while active cooling systems are driven by a pump or compressor for higher
cooling capacity and improved performance. As a passive cooling and given high latent heat
of fusion, high specific heat, and controllable temperature stability of phase change materials
(PCMs), PCMs-based heat sinks are relatively new techniques that can be used for transient
electronic cooling applications [25].

Microscale cooling systems can sufficiently cool those high heat-generating electronic devices
or appliances. For example, the heat transfer performances of microchannel based heat-sinks
and micro-heat pipes are much higher compared to traditional heat exchangers. Because of
the very compact, lightweight, suitable for small electronic devices, and superior cooling
performance, microchannel-based cooling systems have received great attention from
researchers and industries. The forced convective liquid cooling through microchannel heat
sink is one of the promising and high-performance cooling technologies for small-sized high
heat-generating electronic devices. Besides significantly minimizing the package size, this
emerging cooling technology is also amenable to on-chip integration [4, 5].

Heat pipes-based electronics cooling is very popular and is recently receiving great attention
from the researchers as well as industries and are already used in various electronic devices.
Thus, a couple of chapters have particularly been devoted on this topic and it is not discussed
here further.

On the other hand, direct liquid immersion cooling offers a very high HTC, which reduces the
temperature rise of the chip surface. Figure 1 compares the relative magnitudes (approximate)
of HTCs of various commonly used coolants and cooling modes. The relative magnitude of
HTC is directly affected by both the coolant and the mode of heat transfer (Figure 1). While
water (deionized) is the most effective coolant, the boiling and condensation offer the highest
HTCs.

Whatever methods are used to cool the devices or chips, transferring the heat to a fluid with
or without phase transitions, it is necessary to dissipate the heat to the environment. This is
mostly done with the forced convection of air, which is not sufficient particularly for high heat
4 Electronics Cooling

removal situations. Thus, it is also of tremendous importance to efficiently take away the heat
from the coolants.

Figure 1. Range of overall heat transfer coefficients for different fluids and cooling modes.

3. Cooling fluids

3.1. Conventional coolants

There are a number of aqueous and non-aqueous conventional coolants which are used in
various electronics cooling systems. As water possesses higher thermal conductivity and
specific heat and lower viscosity compared to other coolants, it is the most widely used coolant
for electronics. But water is not used in closed loop systems due to its high freezing point and
the expansion upon freezing.

Nonetheless, it is important to select the best coolant for any specific device or cooling system.
There are some general requirements for coolants and they may vary depending on the type
of cooling systems and electronic devices. As well discussed in the literature [26], the liquid
coolants for electronics cooling must be non-flammable, non-toxic, and inexpensive with
excellent thermophysical properties and features, which include high thermal conductivity,
specific heat and HTC, and low viscosity. Besides good chemical and thermal stability, coolants
must also be compatible (e.g., non-corrosive) with the materials of the components of the
cooling systems and devices. However, selection of a coolant for direct immersion cooling
cannot be made only based on the heat transfer features. Chemical compatibility of the coolant
 Introductory Chapter: Electronics Cooling—An Overview 5
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/63321

with the chips and other packaging materials must be considered as well. The commonly used
coolants for electronics cooling are mainly classified into two groups: dielectric and non-
dielectric coolants.

There are several types of dielectric coolants, which are aromatics, aliphatics, silicones, and
fluorocarbons-based fluids. Aromatics coolants such as diethylbenzene (DEB), toluene, and
benzenes are the most commonly used coolants. Aliphatic hydrocarbons of paraffinic and
isoparaffinic types (including mineral oils) and aliphatic polyalphaolefins (PAO) are used in
a variety of direct cooling of electronics. Silicones-based coolant is another popular type of
coolant widely known as silicone oils, e.g., Syltherm XLT. The fluorocarbons series of coolants
such as FC-40, FC-72, FC-77 and FC-87 are widely accepted in the electronics industries.

Non-dielectric liquids are also used for electronics cooling because of their better thermal
properties compared to their dielectric counterparts. They are normally aqueous solutions and
thus exhibit high heat capacity and thermal conductivity. Water, EG, and mixture of these two
(W/EG) are very popular and widely used as electronics coolants. Other popular non-dielectric
coolants include propylene glycol (PG), water/methanol, W/ethanol, NaCl solution, potassium
formate (KFO) solution, and liquid metals (e.g., Ga-In-Sn). Mohapatra and Loikits [26]
evaluated that among the various coolants, KFO solution possesses highest overall efficiency.
Comparisons of various properties and characteristics of all types of available coolants can
help selecting the right coolants.

3.2. Potential new coolants

As mentioned before, the cooling demands of modern electronics devices or systems cannot
be met by those conventional coolants due to their inherently poor thermal properties which
greatly limit the cooling performance. Here, the newly emerged heat transfer fluids like
nanofluids and ionanofluids, which have highly desirable superior thermal properties and are
suitable for even microsystems, can be the cooling solutions. These new fluids can also offer
immense benefits and potential applications in a wide range of industrial, electronics, and
energy fields [12–14, 17]. Results of key heat transfer features including thermal conductivity,
convective and boiling of these new coolants are briefly summarized in the following subsec‐
tion.

3.2.1. Summary of thermal properties and performance

Extensive research has been performed on the thermal conductivity of nanofluids and studies
showed that nanofluids possess considerably higher thermal conductivity compared to their
base fluids [8, 12, 27–28]. However, results from different research groups are not very
consistent and sometimes also controversial particularly regarding the heat transfer
mechanisms [29]. Nanofluids also exhibit superior other thermophysical properties than those
of base fluids [8, 27, 30–32]. With significantly high thermal properties, nanofluids can meet
the cooling demand of high-tech electronics devices.

Evaluating the convective heat transfer performance of nanofluids is very important in order
for their application as coolants in electronics. There have been large number of studies on
6 Electronics Cooling

convective heat transfer of nanofluids and nanofluids are found to exhibit enhanced HTC
compared to their base fluids at any flow conditions. The enhanced HTC (h or Nu) further
increases considerably with increasing concentration of nanoparticles as well as Reynolds
number (Re) or flow rate [9, 33–34]. The enhancement of HTC is even more significant at
turbulent regime. Based on the findings of convective heat transfer, it is considered that
nanofluids can perform better cooling compared to conventional fluids in electronics cooling
systems.

Another very important and efficient mode of cooling is boiling or phase change of fluids in
various heat exchange systems. There is an increasing research focus on this key-cooling
feature of nanofluids. Studies on boiling heat transfer of nanofluids revealed an undisputed
substantial increase (up to few times of base fluids) in the boiling critical heat flux of nanofluids
[9, 35–36]. Research also demonstrated that the boiling performance of nanofluids can be
enhanced further with nanoparticle concentration and various other factors such as deposition
of nanoparticles on heater wall, roughness of wall surface, and addition of surfactant [35–38].
Given the superior convective and boiling heat transfer performances, these new fluids can
considerably increase the HTC and can act as better coolants than water or other conventional
coolants.

Like nanofluids, ionanofluids also exhibit superior thermal properties, particularly thermal
conductivity and heat capacity compared to their base ionic liquids [15–17]. Besides good
thermal stability, thermophysical properties of ionanofluids can be adjusted by changing the
ionic composition and structure of base ionic liquids. Early research revealed that these new
nanofluids showed great potential to be used as advanced coolants for electronics cooling [16–
17].

3.2.2. Potential of new fluids in electronics cooling

In recent years, extensive research works have been performed on the application of micro‐
channel cooling systems (e.g., heat sinks) for electronics cooling [4, 5, 39]. Since the convective
HTC is inversely proportional to the hydraulic diameter of the channel, very high heat transfer
performance can be achieved by using microchannel at any flow regime. The forced convective
heat transfer of cooling fluids through microchannel heat sinks is among the more promising
technologies, which can offer very high heat removal rates [4, 5, 21, 39]. Nevertheless, the main
limitation of cooling performance actually raised from the low heat transfer capability of the
coolants used. In this regards, nanofluids with superior heat transfer performance can
potentially boost the heat removal performance of microchannel cooling systems even further
and be able to remove high heat flux of high-tech electronics devices.

Nanofluids have directly been employed in cooling systems of electronic or computing devices
to evaluate the performance of these new fluids [40–42]. Results were very promising as the
application of nanofluids in those cooling systems resulted in better cooling performance
compared to traditional base fluids [39–43]. Thus, applications of nanofluids in conventional
and emerging techniques such as microchannels and heat pipes can be the next-generation
electronics cooling systems. A detailed discussion and analysis on the potential benefits and
 Introductory Chapter: Electronics Cooling—An Overview 7
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/63321

applications of nanofluids in cooling electronics can also be found in an ongoing study by the
author [44].

4. Conclusions

Advances in electronics and semiconductor technologies have led to a dramatic increase in

heat flux density for high-performance chips and components, whereas conventional cooling
techniques and coolants are increasingly falling short in meeting the ever-increasing cooling
need of such high heat-generating electronic devices or microprocessors. Despite good
progress been made during the past decades, there remain some serious technical challenges
in thermal management and cooling of these electronics. High-performance chips and devices
need innovative mechanisms, techniques, and coolants with high heat transfer capability to
enhance the cooling rate for their normal performance and longevity. With superior thermal
properties and cooling features, nanofluids offer great promises to be used as coolants for high-
tech electronic devices and industries. The emerging techniques like microchannels with these
new fluids can be the next-generation cooling technologies.

Author details

S M Sohel Murshed

Address all correspondence to: smmurshed@ciencias.ulisboa.pt

Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

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