A multi-artery vapor chamber and its performance

A multi-artery vapor chamber was designed, built and tested in this study. In this vapor chamber, the wick structure consists of sintered copper powder layers on the top and bottom plates, operating as evaporator and condenser wick respectively, and sintered copper powder rings embedded with solid copper columns operating as liquid flow path. Copper powder rings contact the tip of the condenser and evaporator wicks directly to provide a short return path for the working fluid. Solid copper columns are welded together with the top and bottom plate to prevent deformation of the vapor chamber, which is caused by the internal and external pressure difference. An experimental system with joule heating and water cooling was built. Thermal resistance was defined to characterize the performance. The performance of the vapor chamber under different heat loads, heating areas and heating modes were tested and analyzed. The lowest measured thermal resistance is less than 0.08 K cm(2)/W using a 1 cm(2) heat source. The maximum tested heat flux is 300 W/cm(2) without the capillary or boiling limits reached. As compared with the vapor chambers reported in the literature, this vapor chamber has a very good performance and can be easily manufactured with low cost. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.