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To cite this article: Satish G. Kandlikar & William J. Grande (2003): Evolution of Microchannel Flow Passages--
Thermohydraulic Performance and Fabrication Technology, Heat Transfer Engineering, 24:1, 3-17
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Heat Transfer Engineering, 24(1):3–17, 2003
Copyright °C 2003 Taylor & Francis
0145–7632/03 $12.00 + .00
DOI: 10.1080/01457630390116077
Evolution of Microchannel
Flow Passages—
Thermohydraulic
Performance and
Fabrication Technology
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SATISH G. KANDLIKAR
Mechanical Engineering Department, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA
WILLIAM J. GRANDE
Microelectronic Engineering Department, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA
This paper provides a roadmap of development in the thermal and fabrication aspects of
microchannels as applied in microelectronics and other high heat-flux cooling applications.
Microchannels are defined as flow passages that have hydraulic diameters in the range of 10 to
200 micrometers. The impetus for microchannel research was provided by the pioneering work of
Tuckerman and Pease [1] at Stanford University in the early eighties. Since that time, this
technology has received considerable attention in microelectronics and other major application
areas, such as fuel cell systems and advanced heat sink designs.
After reviewing the advancement in heat transfer technology from a historical perspective, the
advantages of using microchannels in high heat flux cooling applications is discussed, and research
done on various aspects of microchannel heat exchanger performance is reviewed. Single-phase
performance for liquids is still expected to be describable by conventional equations; however, the
gas flow may be influenced by rarefaction effects. Two-phase flow is another topic that is still under
active research.
The evolution of research in microchannel flow passages has paralleled the advancements made
in fabrication technology. The earliest microchannels were built in silicon wafers by anisotropic wet
chemical etching and sawing. While these methods have been exploited successfully, they impose a
number of significant restrictions on channel geometry. A variety of advanced micromachining
techniques have been developed since this early work. The current state of fabrication technology is
reviewed, taxonomically organized, and found to offer many new possibilities for building
microchannels. In particular anisotropic dry etching and other high aspect ratio techniques have
removed many of the process-induced constraints on microchannel design. Other technologies such
as surface micromachining, microstamping, hybridization, and system-on-chip integration will
enable increasingly complex, highly functional heat transfer devices for the foreseeable future. It is
also found that the formation of flow passages with hydraulic diameters below the microchannel
regime will be readily possible with current fabrication techniques.
3
INTRODUCTION two-phase applications received the same aggressive
treatment throughout the heat transfer industry.
Historical Advancements in Heat
Transfer Technologies
Heat and Mass Transfer in Biological Systems
Heat, or thermal energy, represents the ultimate man-
Nature provides us with some important clues re-
ifestation of all forms of energy. Transfer of heat from
garding the heat and mass transfer processes. For ex-
one location to other, from one medium to another,
ample, the African elephants have larger ears than those
and meeting the challenges of accomplishing this trans-
in Asia—the higher temperature in the desert environ-
fer under a variety of constraints have been the ob-
ment in Africa requires a larger surface area for the
jectives of heat transfer research ever since fire was
ears, which are the main heat dissipation devices for
“domesticated.”
elephants. Looking at the biological systems, such as
Heat transfer by convection provides a means of
a human body, Chen and Helmes [2] found that the
transferring heat quickly away from heat exchange sur-
blood vessels that are largely responsible for thermal ex-
faces. Fluids employed in engineering systems and pro-
change (known as thermally significant blood vessels)
cesses undergo the changes in their thermal state in heat
have sizes on the order of hundreds of micrometers, with
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Figure 1a Variation of heat transfer coefficient with channel size for a square channel under a laminar flow, constant heat flux boundary
condition, assuming no rarefaction and compressibility effects.
The top width was between 28 and 182.7 µm, and the channel. Further confirmation in this regard may be
length of the flow channel was set at 2 mm. The flow rate warranted.
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Channel dimensions in µm
Free
Continuum Transition molecular
Gas flow Slip flow flow flow
accounting for the wall effect during flow through par- of the fundamental issues related to flow patterns in
allel channels and rectangular microchannels. microchannels and minichannels was conducted by
In their formulation, Ebert and Sparrow [12] modeled Kandlikar [5, 6]. Readers are referred to those arti-
the wall slip condition using the first derivative of the cles for further details. Briefly, the following important
velocity profile at the wall. Aubert and Colin [14] point points can be summarized.
out that the Taylor series form of the velocity profile
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proposed by Ebert and Sparrow does not converge with The flow patterns observed in the microchannels are
the second order boundary condition and instead used a strongly dependent on time, with a sequence of dif-
second order boundary condition at the wall. Although ferent flow patterns passing through the channel as a
their results provided a better fit with the experimental result of flow instabilities. The results are more pro-
data, they yield accommodation factors of greater than nounced in multichannels.
1, suggesting that these be treated as empirical constants Occasional flow reversals are commonly experienced
at this time. in a channel. The visual studies have confirmed that
The wall effects also influence the heat transfer char- the fluctuations result from the rapid expansion of a
acteristics in microchannels. In the case of fluid flow, the bubble into a slug, which pushes the liquid away both
friction coefficient was reduced, yielding a higher mass upstream as well as downstream of the flow.
flow rate of gases as compared to the predictions from The heat transfer coefficient during flow boiling in mi-
conventional correlations. In the case of heat transfer, crochannels can be predicted with the existing cor-
a decrease in the heat transfer coefficient is expected relations, such as the Kandlikar [17] correlation, for
as channel dimensions become smaller or the Knudsen large diameter tubes.
number increases beyond 0.001.
The approach proposed by Li et al. [15] represents A recent study reported by Kandlikar et al. [18] shows
an alternative model for analyzing the wall effect. The that the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient with liquid
temperature and velocity jumps at the wall proposed in flow Reynolds numbers considerably smaller than the
the slip flow models are replaced with a continuous vari- transition value of 2300 are predicted well by using the
ation of viscosity and thermal conductivity in the layer conventional flow boiling correlation, such as by Kan-
close to the wall within a several mean free path distance. dlikar [17], with the fully developed laminar flow value
Further evaluation of this model is needed before it can for the all-liquid heat transfer coefficient, instead of a
be applied to other systems. This approach, however, turbulent flow correlation. Further work is continuing
seems to be promising as the wall effects are modeled in this area.
through a continuously variable property rather than a In the author’s laboratory, we have recently obtained
jump condition, which is not clearly understood. high speed images of the flow patterns in 200 µm
Hadjiconstantinou and Simek [16] analyzed the fully square microchannels. The presence of the churn flow,
developed flow in the slip flow and transition regions for as shown in Figure 2a, has been seen perhaps for the first
the case of constant wall temperature. They included time in such small diameter channels. Flow reversal be-
the axial heat conduction term in the slip flow model. havior for these channels was also observed. Figure 2b
Their results indicate that axial conduction increases the shows a sequence with a bubble expanding into a slug
Nusselt number by 10 percent. that pushes the liquid flow back into the inlet manifold.
Surface tension plays an important role as chan- Condensation heat transfer is significantly enhanced
nel dimensions become smaller. An exhaustive review in microchannels. Although condensation heat transfer
8 heat transfer engineering vol. 24 no. 1 2003
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Figure 2a Churn flow sequence observed during flow boiling of water in a 200 µm square microchannel.
Microfabrication Taxonomy
clarity, many minor technologies have been omitted. tive on hard brittle materials and are being practiced at
Some techniques, such as lithography, laser expo- ever finer scales.
sure, electroplating, and molding, have been widely Included as miniaturized traditional techniques are a
adopted and are encountered in multiple fabrication number of manufacturing methodologies. Commercial
methodologies. electroforming, molding, and stereolithographic fabri-
The first major division identified in the taxonomic cation have been brought into the micro regime through
hierarchy is between miniaturized traditional and “mod- the incorporation of lithographic and laser-based pat-
ern” technologies. Miniaturized traditional techniques terning. The printed circuit board industry, for example,
are rooted in conventional machine shop and manufac- is routinely producing micro via holes at the 25 µm
turing practices but adapted to achieve microscale fea- scale.
tures. The “modern” technologies are more difficult to The “modern” technologies can be distinguished as
characterize but are generally based on advances that either serial or batch and have been reviewed by a
occurred in the latter half of the twentieth century, such number of excellent sources [24–31]. Because serial
as lasers and micron-level photolithography. Semicon- techniques machine objects in a point by point fash-
ductor and allied fabrication methods account for the ion, they tend to have low material removal rates and
bulk of the “modern” technologies. low throughput. However, these techniques are often
In some respects, miniaturized traditional techniques used for specialized high-value, low-repetition opera-
are the most straightforward approach to creating micro- tions like micro-feature repair and via formation. Laser
features. These miniature techniques often use conven- machining has become an increasingly powerful tool
tional machine tools especially adapted to operate in that can handle a wide variety of difficult materials. Fo-
the micro regime. The adaptations range from shrink- cused ion beam machining offers many similar benefits
ing the machine tool itself, such as miniature milling and can operate in the submicron regime.
machines [19], to the introduction of lithographic pat-
terning. Sawing has been taken into the micro realm, Semiconductor-Like Fabrication Techniques
especially in the form of wafer dicing. Saw cuts on the
order of 25 µm width with a placement accuracy of Much of the current research and excitement in the
4 µm at 3 sigma can be obtained with commercially fields of microsystems technology (MST) and micro-
available equipment [20]. Micro-electro discharge ma- electromechanical systems (MEMS) is centered among
chining [21–23] has been demonstrated using very fine a group of batch microfabrication methods that arose
wires as electrodes. Other cutting techniques, such as from the semiconductor sector. Silicon-based vari-
ultrasonic and waterjet machining, are especially effec- ants are the most prevalent because of the enormous
chemical or dry plasma format, and both techniques An attractive feature of DRIE is that the etch process
have isotropic and anisotropic variants. is readily masked with a variety of dielectric and poly-
Anisotropic wet chemical etching (WCE) of silicon mer films, such as silicon dioxide and photoresist. Etch
has been the workhorse technique since the original rate ratios between silicon and the masking materials
work of Tuckerman and Pease [1]. A number of etchants, can be in the range 50–150. Thus, deep trenches and
including potassium hydroxide and ethylene diamine through-wafer features can be readily obtained. Figure 4
pyrocatechol, will etch the {111} planes of silicon at shows a set of microchannels with 42 µm trenches
such a slow rate compared to other crystal directions that that were etched to greater than 100 µm. The strong
the {111} planes can be thought of as etch stops [32, 33]. interplay among process responses such as etch rate,
In silicon with a (100) surface, the {111} planes can be sidewall angle, and sidewall roughness has been char-
used to create V-grooves with a 54.74◦ angle to the sur- acterized by Ayon and coworkers [43]. Dry isotropic
face. In (110)-oriented silicon, the {111} family has two etching can be obtained without a plasma by expos-
pairs of planes that are perpendicular to the wafer sur- ing silicon to the gas xenon difluoride with which
face and intersect each other at 70.53◦ . (The other two it reacts spontaneously at room temperature [44, 45].
pairs shallowly intersect the surface at 35.26◦ and help Bulk micromachining etch processes are summarized in
determine the shape of the bottom of the etch trench.) Figure 5.
The dependence on crystal orientation means that WCE Etch techniques can be combined in unique ways
can produce only a few specific microchannel device de- to create complex microchannel structures. Figure 6
signs. Care must be taken when aligning the etch mask schematically illustrates a process [46] that can create
to the crystal planes in order to avoid unwanted arti- microchannels buried within the interior of a wafer. It is
facts [34]. Anisotropic WCE etch rates are typically in also possible to build sets of microchannels at different
the range of 1 µm/min; as such, etch times of many depths and have them cross over each other. The tech-
hours are common. Wafers can, however, be etched in nique uses an initial anisotropic etch to create a deep
batches to improve throughput. Another constraint of narrow trench in a silicon substrate. A mask layer is
anisotropic WCE is that features formed by the inter- coated on the sides of the trench but not the bottom,
section of {111} planes are stable only when the angle and a subsequent isotropic etch step forms the channel.
of the corner is less than 180◦ . This means that prop- The initial trench can then be plugged by conformal
erly bounded isolated trenches can be etched to arbitrary deposition of a thin film.
depths, whereas isolated mesas will undergo attack at Bulk micromachining and surface micromachining
the corners and may require compensation techniques are complementary techniques that can be combined
to achieve the desired shape [35]. to build multifunctional systems. Zohar and coworkers
Wet chemical etching can also be carried out in an [47, 48] have built microchannel devices with integrated
isotropic manner, most commonly using the “HNA” heaters and temperature sensor arrays. It is anticipated
system of hydrofluoric acid, nitric acid, and acetic acid. that true systems-on-chip that combine microcooling
Isotropic WCE can exhibit high etch rates—greater with sensing, computation, active fluidic components,
than 100 µm/min—and result in hemispherical etch on-board power sources, and communication to the out-
profiles. side world will evolve in the future.
High Aspect Ratio Lithography and Molding of microns of vertical height [49]. Final parts can be ob-
tained in three distinct ways. First, the patterned resist
A class of very high aspect ratio fabrication processes can be separated from the substrate and used as a pre-
based on the lost wax molding technique has come cision machined polymer. Second, the molded deposit,
to be known by the term LIGA, a German acronym which is typically an electroformed metal such as nickel
for lithographie, galvanoformung, abformung (mean- or copper, can be separated from the substrate. Lastly,
ing lithography, electroplating, and molding). As shown the substrate and deposited metal can be used in combi-
in Figure 7, LIGA uses highly collimated X-rays pro- nation as a high precision molding master. High aspect
jected through a special X-ray mask to provide near ratio electrodeposited features were first obtained using
diffraction-free exposure of a thick photoresist. The de- X-ray exposure by Romankiw and coworkers in the mid-
veloped features in the photoresist can then be filled with 1970s [50]. In 1982, Ehrfeld and coworkers recognized
a variety of materials and planarized. The technique can the potential of the process to build molding masters
create structures with aspect ratios in excess of 100:1 that could be used to inexpensively create ultraprecise
and can hold submicron tolerances over many hundreds high aspect ratio parts [51].
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1991. MEMS. He holds the BSEE and BSChE from the
[67] Jerman, H., Electrically-Activated, Normally-Closed Di- New Jersey Institute of Technology and an M.S.
aphragm Valves, J. MEMS, vol. 4, pp. 210–216, 1994. and Ph.D. in Applied and Engineering Physics
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trial research experience at the IIT Research Institute and Kodak Research
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527, 2000. ing at RIT, where his activities are focused on expanding the curriculum and
[69] The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors research effort in Microsystems. Dr. Grande holds 16 patents and founded
can be accessed at http://public.itrs.net. In particular, see the Tiger Microsystems, Inc., which specializes in the commercialization of
section on “Lithography.” microsystem-based products.