Convective Cooling of Compact Electronic Devices Via Liquid Metals With Low Melting Points

Abstract

The increasingly high power density of today's electronic devices requires the cooling techniques to produce highly effective heat dissipation performance with as little sacrifice as possible to the system compactness. Among the currently available thermal management schemes, convective liquid metal cooling provides considerably high performance due to its unique thermal properties. This paper first reviews the studies on convective cooling using low-melting-point metals published in the past few decades. A group of equations for the thermophysical properties of In-Ga-Sn eutectic alloy is then documented by rigorous literature examination, following by a section of correlations for the heat transfer and flow resistance calculation to partially facilitate the designing work at the current stage. The urgent need to investigate the heat transfer and flow resistance of forced convection of low-melting-point metals in small/mini-channels, typical in compact electronic devices, is carefully argued. Some special aspects pertaining to the practical application of this cooling technique, including the entrance effect, mixed convection, and compact liquid metal heat exchanger design, are also discussed. Finally, future challenges and prospects are outlined.