A review on active techniques in microchannel heat sink for miniaturization problem in electronic industry

With continuous miniaturization of modern electronic components, the need of better cooling devices also keeps on increasing. The improper thermal management of these devices not only hampers the efficiency but can also cause permanent damage. Among various techniques, microchannel heat sink has shown most favourable performance. To further enhance the performance, two techniques i.e., active and passive are used. In passive technique, no external power source is required like heat sink design alteration and working fluid modification. External power source is necessary for heat transfer augmentation in the microchannel heat sink when using the active approach. Due to compact size of microchannel, active techniques are not used more often. However, the present work highlights the different active technique used in microchannel i.e., Electrostatic forces, flow pulsation, magnetic field, acoustic effects, and vibration active techniques. Above mentioned techniques have been analysed in detail.