Passive heat sink for dynamic thermal management of hot spots

摘要

A fully-passive, dynamically configurable directed cooling system for a microelectronic device is disclosed. In general, movable pins are suspended within a cooling plenum between an active layer and a second layer of the microelectronic device. In one embodiment, the second layer is another active layer of the microelectronic device. The movable pins are formed of a material that has a surface tension that decreases as temperature increases such that, in response to a temperature gradient on the surface of the active layer, the movable pins move by capillary flow in the directions of decreasing temperature. By moving in the direction of decreasing temperature, the movable pins move away from hot spots on the surface of the active layer, thereby opening a pathway for preferential flow of a coolant through the cooling plenum at a higher flow rate towards the hot spots.

主权项

1. A microelectronic device comprising:
an active layer; a cooling plenum on a surface of the active layer; a second layer on the cooling plenum opposite the active layer such that the cooling plenum is between the active layer and the second layer; and a plurality of movable pins suspended in the cooling plenum between the active layer and the second layer, the plurality of movable pins being formed of a material having a surface tension that decreases as temperature increases such that, in response to a temperature gradient on the surface of the active layer, the plurality of movable pins move by capillary flow in directions of decreasing temperature on the surface of the active layer.