Kovar Micro Heat Pipe Substrates for Microelectronic Cooling

We describe the development of a new technology for cooling microelectronics. This report documents the design, fabrication, and prototype testing of micro scale heat pipes embedded in a flat plate substrate or heat spreader. A thermal model tuned to the test results enables us to describe heat transfer in the prototype, as well as evaluate the use of this technology in other applications. The substrate walls are Kovar alloy, which has a coefficient of thermal expansion close to that of microelectronic die. The prototype designs integrating micro heat pipes with Kovar enhance thermal conductivity by more than a factor of two over that of Kovar alone, thus improving the cooling of micro-electronic die