Improve the Performance of Micro Heat Pipe by Surface Modification

Abstract

The appearance of high power LED has put forward higher requirements for thermal management. The micro heat pipe (MHP) has high heat transfer ability and plays an important role in high power LED and other high heat flux device cooling. In this paper, we designed and fabricated a micro heat pipe with fluoroalkyl silane (FAS) surface modified glass cover. The contact angle of the working area of glass cover reached 95.49° and made working fluid drops fall back to micro groove of silicon substrate more quickly. Thus the new glass cover can speed up the circulation of working fluid and enhance the heat transfer. The experimental results also proved that hydrophobic glass cover has a better heat transfer capability. Besides, this novel MHP reached the stable working status faster. When the input heat power was 10 W, the balance temperature of MHP with hydrophobic glass cover was 22 oC lower than traditional MHP, while the balance time is 58 seconds less. The work presented in this paper provides a new direction for optimize the MHP, not only the wick structure in substrate, but also the wettability of cover plate.