Thermal performance study of integrated cold plate with power module

A novel cold plate for cooling of the electronic components with high heat flux and high heat dissipation requirements is proposed. The cold-plate structure of the S-type with guide plates is introduced to avoid the heat hot concentration and increase the heat transfer area. The experimental results show that the maximum chip temperature of the novel cold plate is approximately 40% lower than those of the conventional cold plate. Thermal performance optimizations are conducted, indicating that it is extremely effective to install the heat source on two sides of the cold plate. Compared with the single-side heat source, the maximum chip temperature is increased only 20%. However, the heat dissipation is doubled in the limited space for the double-sides arrangement heat source. Moreover, the integrated density of the power module is greatly enhanced by using the cold plate. Transient state temperature variation indicates that the cold plate have quick thermal response in start-up process. It is beneficial to the heat dissipation of integrated module for high power density. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.