Improving the Cooling Efficiency of Heat Sinks through the Use of Different Types of Phase Change Materials

Abstract

As the temperature of electronic devices increases, their failure rate increases. That is why electrical devices should be cooled. One of the promising cooling techniques is using Phase Change Materials (PCMs). A new passive temperature management technique, that involves the direct placement of PCMs on the chip, has been explored and developed. PCMs are potential temperature regulators that can store thermal energy and release it during melting and freezing respectively. PCM-based heat sinks can efficiently store the heat dissipated from the electronic components to delay the peak temperature of the electronic devices as much as possible and then release the stored energy during the off period. This paper compares the temperature distribution on a heat sink with and without PCM with different magnitudes of heat flux. Also, two different PCMs with different densities, namely salt-hydrate and wax, have been investigated in cooling electronic devices. © 2018 by the authors.