Numerical Investigations of Mini-Channel Heat Sink for Microprocessor Cooling: Effect of Slab Thickness

High heat generation in microelectronics devices is an inevitable consequence of high processing loads. One of the important factors in design of electronic devices is to design a smart cooling system to remove the generated heat well in time for a reliable and longer life. Water-cooled heat sinks are replacing air-cooled heat sinks with the rapid compactness and high process requirements. In this work, we introduced a slab in mini-channel and evaluated the thermal performance of mini-channel heat sink. The boundary layer separately develops in upper and lower portions of channel, which enhanced the heat transfer. We changed the thickness of slab from 0.2 to 1.6 mm for fin spacing of 0.5 mm and 1 mm, respectively, to determine the effects of thickness on overall thermal performance of heat sink. The computed values were then compared with the data available in the literature without slab. The minimum base temperatures recorded for 0.2-mm-thick slab with fin spacing of 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm were 40.1 °C and 42.4 °C, respectively. This represents a reduction of 12.5% and 16.2%, respectively, in the base temperature as compared to the base temperature without a slab.