Pressure drop and heat transfer in fractal microchannel heat sinks for cooling of electronic chips

Inspired by the fractal pattern of mammalian digestive and circulatory system, a magical design of fractal branching channel heat sinks for cooling of electronic chips is studied. Based on the fractal branching net constructing, the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of fluid flow in fractal microchannel net are investigated. Furthermore, the fractal tree-like microchannel heat sinks are fabricated by multiplex inductively coupled plasma etching equipment in silicon wafer. The theoretical calculation and heat transfer experiments show that the fractal channel net has a higher heat transfer rate compared with the parallel channels having the same heat transfer condition and Nusselt number, the required pumping power for fractal channel net is decreased compared with parallel channels having the same velocity and heat transfer rate. Specially, the fractal channel net with larger dimensions can achieve higher heat transfer rate and lower pumping power on the same analyzed conditions.