Modular Liquid Heat Sink With Space-Filling Channels for Uniform Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing heat sinks for power semiconductors face a compromise between cooling uniformity and pressure drop, leading to inefficient thermal performance due to uneven cooling and sensitivity to pressure fluctuations.
Innovation Solution
A modular liquid heat sink with space-filling cooling channels, designed using modified curves like Hilbert or Peano curves, generates pressure drop through flow direction changes, promoting turbulent flow and uniform cooling across the surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the cooling channel cross-section is narrowed or channel length is increased to increase pressure drop, then cooling efficiency improves, but cooling uniformity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The heat sink is divided into multiple identical modular units, each containing a cooling channel module. These modules can be arranged in series or parallel configurations to achieve the desired pressure drop and cooling uniformity without requiring extreme channel narrowing or lengthening in individual channels.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling channels follow space-filling curves (such as Hilbert or Peano curves) that provide smooth, continuous curvature throughout the heat sink. This curved path increases the effective cooling channel length and pressure drop while maintaining adequate cross-sectional area, ensuring both high cooling efficiency and uniform temperature distribution across all cooled components.
2Temperature
If parallel branched cooling circuits are used to achieve more uniform cooling, then cooling uniformity improves, but pressure drop decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The heat sink is segmented into multiple identical modular units that can be connected in series. This segmentation allows the system to achieve high pressure drop through series connection of modules, while each individual module maintains uniform cooling through its space-filling curve channel design.
Solution Approach 2:
The space-filling curve geometry of the cooling channels creates a balanced flow distribution that provides both uniform cooling across the heat sink surface and sufficient pressure drop, eliminating the need to choose between parallel branches (for uniformity) and narrow/long channels (for pressure drop).
3Stress or pressure
If high flow velocity is used to generate pressure drop, then pressure drop increases, but cooling uniformity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling channels follow space-filling curves (such as Hilbert or Peano curves) that provide smooth, continuous curvature throughout the heat sink. This curved path increases the effective cooling channel length and pressure drop while maintaining adequate cross-sectional area and moderate flow velocities, ensuring both high cooling efficiency and uniform temperature distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of increasing pressure drop through one-dimensional channel narrowing, the invention uses space-filling curves that exploit two-dimensional or three-dimensional paths within the heat sink volume. This dimensional approach allows long, tortuous cooling paths with sufficient cross-sectional area, generating pressure drop through path length rather than velocity increase.
4Ease of manufacture
If modular heat sink design is implemented to improve adaptability, then ease of manufacture improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heat sink is divided into multiple identical modular units, each containing a cooling channel module. These modules can be arranged in series or parallel configurations to achieve the desired pressure drop and cooling uniformity. The identical modular design simplifies manufacturing through standardization while the flexible arrangement provides adaptability for different applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The modular heat sink design uses identical modules that can be configured in different series or parallel arrangements to meet different cooling requirements. This universal module design simplifies manufacturing and inventory management while providing adaptability for various pressure drop and cooling uniformity needs through simple reconfiguration.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Ensures efficient and uniform cooling of power semiconductors by maintaining moderate fluid velocities, reducing temperature gradients, and enhancing heat transfer coefficients, thus improving thermal performance.
Implementation Method 1
A pressure drop is generated by redirecting the flow direction of a cooling medium, which causes additional mixing of the fluid layers and leads to a turbulent boundary layer
Implementation Method 2
redirecting the flow direction of the cooling medium, which causes additional mixing of the fluid layers and leads to a turbulent boundary layer
Implementation Method 3
A pressure drop is generated by redirecting the flow direction of a cooling medium... leads to a higher heat transfer coefficient between the heat sink and the component to be cooled
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a modularly constructed heat sink, in particular a liquid heat sink (1) of a power semiconductor (10), wherein the liquid heat sink (1) has at least one inlet (2) and one outlet (3) in a housing (4) which surrounds the liquid heat sink (1) and to which the power semiconductors (10) are thermally directly coupled at least on one side of the housing (4), wherein an open channel structure (11) is provided in a heat-conducting material which is closed by a cover of the housing (4), wherein the channel structure (11) of the liquid heat sink (1) is designed as a modified space-filling curve.