Self-adaptive microvalve array for energy efficient fluidic cooling in microelectronic systems

In the present work, the performance of temperature-regulated microvalves is investigated analytically for energy efficient fluidic cooling of microelectronic systems. The objectives are to decrease the overall mass flow rate of coolant (hence decreasing the pumping power) as well as to improve the temperature uniformity across the chip surface with hot spots. For this purpose, temperature-regulated microvalves are used to manage the coolant mass flow rate distribution throughout the chip based on the local chip temperature. The aim of this study is to find the optimum temperature response function of the microvalves to have more energy efficient cooling. Linear, quadratic and exponential temperature response behaviors are considered for the microvalves. Results show that for the linear microvalves, the mass flow rate and the temperature non-uniformity across the chip decrease by 50% and 29% respectively by using active self-adaptive microvalves, compared to the reference condition without any microvalve. These enhancement values are respectively 45% and 55% when using exponential instead of linear microvalves. This study shows that the concept of self-adaptive microvalve arrays for distributed chip cooling can have a significant impact on power and performance, opening a new approach for microfluidic cooling compared to traditional fixed microchannels.