Design, manufacture and testing of a low-cost micro-channel cooling device

The modelling, simulation, fabrication and testing of a microchannel cooling plate are described in this article. The device is to be used in microelectronic packaging cooling applications. The nickel-based micro-channel cooling plate is fabricated on a glass substrate using a two-layer electroforming process borrowed from the UV-LIGA (UV-lithography, electroforming, replication) process. Forced convection of air or liquid is scheduled for this microchannel plate. The cooling plate has been tested using a custom-made rig to measure the flow pressure head as a function of mass flow rate. Hydraulic performance of the cooling plate is presented