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POWER ELECTRONICS

Chips cool off with integrated microfluidics

Nature Electronics volume 3, page 583 (2020)Cite this article

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Nature 585, 211–216 (2020)

In a combined fabrication approach, the researchers create multiple microchannels (to act as heat sinks) in the silicon layer and create electronic devices (an a.c. to d.c. power converter) in the gallium nitride layer. To further lower the temperature of the chip, a coolant can flow through the microchannels, which sit directly below the electronic components. When water coolant was used, the structure could remove 1.7 KW cm–2 of heat using only 0.57 W cm–2 of pumping power, outperforming other state-of-the-art cooling systems. Furthermore, compared to an air-cooled device, the liquid-cooled converter had a higher power output due to reduced self-heating effects.

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  1. Nature Electronics https://www.nature.com/natelectron

    Christiana Varnava

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  1. Christiana Varnava
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Correspondence to Christiana Varnava.

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Varnava, C. Chips cool off with integrated microfluidics. Nat Electron 3, 583 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-00494-5

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