| Micro heat pipe (MHP) is a small-scale device used to transport energy from a heat source to a heat sink using the latent heat of evaporation in a nearly isothermal operation. They are used to cool microelectronic chips (low-temperature MHP's), and to improve the specific thermal conductivity of waste-heat radiator panels for space applications (high-temperature MHP's).; As integrated circuits become faster and more densely packed with transistors (Pentium and Alpha Technology), the power density increases and the heat generated as a by-product becomes more severe. Conventional methods of cooling are not an ideal way to overcome the heat problem. A simple solution would be using micro heat pipe as integrated part in the silicon substrate of the today's processors. Currently, silicon/working fluid micro heat pipes are being fabricated and tested to verify the operation of the micro heat pipe as a thermal heat spreader. The work reported here addresses two major topics. First is the fabrication of two arrays of 100{dollar}mu{dollar}m and 260{dollar}mu{dollar}m wide, V-grooved micro heat pipes, their construction onto a silicon substrate using photolithography and anisotropic wet-chemical etching for low- and high-temperature applications. Second is analyzing the experimental results obtained from the two sets of the micro heat pipe arrays and report the operation of the micro heat pipe as a thermal heat spreader. |
