Thermal Technology for Cooling Electronics

Koichi Mashiko1

Thin heat pipe modules are widely used for cooling the CPU of a PC or electronic devices.
To meet customer demands for improvement in thermal performance and reduction in size
and height, we have developed an ultra-thin (1mm) heat pipe. In addition, we have worked
on the development of an ultra-thin (1mm) piezo fan included in the cooling module. Another
product we developed is a water-cooled module having a special channel structure for a power
semiconductor device of a power converter used for wind or solar power generation requires a
water-cooled system to help increase the converter capacity. As the power consumption of data-
centers or super computers has been increasing, increases in efficiency of cooling facilities and
reductions in power consumption are absolutely necessary. So far, the air cooling system has been
predominantly adopted in this field, but currently water cooling system is being reconsidered
as an efficient cooling system. We also completed the development of a cold plate unit, which
has a micro channel structure, for cooling super computers. After making the prototypes, the
performance of the system met customer demands, and our products have contributed not only
to the highest calculation speed but also to reductions in the power consumption of CPUs.

1. Introduction mately 15 W, and that of tablet is approximately 5 W.

Cooling modules assembled from a heat pipe and a
fan have become widely used as an increase in the per-
formance of a CPU used in a note PC has resulted in
increases in power consumption with increases in
clock frequencies. 1) Figure 1 shows the progression of
the shipment number (worldwide) of PCs, tablets, and
smart phones. The number of notebook PCs is increas-
ing, but that of thinner note PCs, in particular, is in-
creasing. The heat dissipation of the CPU is approxi-
10
9
8 (Prediction)
Shipment of product (¥100 Mil/Y)
The cooling modules for these CPUs are required to
be thinner and lighter in weight.
To meet the requirements for the cooling modules,
we continuously put our efforts into developing thin-
ner heat pipes as well as higher performance heat
pipes. 2) In addition, with downsizing of electronic
equipment, we have developed smaller size heat pipes
and are looking for their uses in new fields.
On the other hand, water cooling system has be-
come necessary instead of conventional air-cooling
system in particular for cooling power modules and
data-centers that of high power, high performance and
compact. Power consumption at data-center will al-
ways be increasing due to the demand of faster and
more data processing.

7 Figure 2 shows the trend of power consumption es-

PC Tablet and
Smartphone
timated by Green IT Promotion Council.
6

4 (Source: Green IT Promotion Council)

800 800
Power Consumption

Power consumption
Quantity (Mil Ton/Y)

3
600 Exhaust Quantity 600
CO2 Exhaust
(Bill Kwh/Y)

2
400 400
1

0 200 200
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Year [US-IDC] 0 0
2005 2015 2025 2035 2045
Fig. 1. Shipment number prediction (worldwide) of PC, Tablet
and Smartphone Year

Fig. 2. Estimated trend of the power consumption in data-
1 Thermal Technology Division centers (Green IT Promotion Council)

70
 Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Terms.
CPU–Central Processing Unit IGBT–Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor
PUE–Power Usage Effectiveness

According to the simulation, if the use of IT appara- of the conventional air-cooling.

tus increases at the current pace, the amount of power
consumption of the apparatus in 2025 is expected to be
approximately over 5 times that of 2005, or 240 Billion
kWh.
The power consumed at the facilities for cooling
CPUs and IT apparatus accounts for 80% of the total
power consumption. Therefore, cutting down on the
power consumption has become an important task for
data-centers.
The air cooling system of data-centers shown in Fig.
3, has a problem that hot spots occur during cooling.
For air cooling, its cooling efficiency is insufficient be-
cause a CPU is cooled by air, which has a low heat ca-
pacity and thus requires higher air flow and therefore
higher power consumption. So, the water cooling has
been reconsidered as a more effective means instead
Ceiling return option
Rack Rack Rack Rack
CRAC CRAC
Vents Vents
Room Chilled Water Supply
Fig. 3. Air cooling system of data-center
2. Thermal Technology for Cooling Electronics
Figure 4 shows applications of our thermal prod-
ucts. The main thermal products include heat pipes,
and the modules, heat sinks, vapor chambers, heat
spreaders, and cold plates. These products are widely
used, especially for cooling PCs and electronics. With
the trends of thinner and compact assemblies in a PC,
a thinner heat pipe module is required. On the other
hand, an effective and high performance water cooling
module is required for a data-center cooling system.
Our newest products and their typical applications are
described as follows:
2.1 Micro Heat Pipe for Cooling PC 2)
With the trend of compact cooling in PCs, there has
been a growing demand for a thinly pressed micro
heat pipe. Figure5 shows the thickness and the heat
dissipation of micro heat pipe, which are required for
PCs and mobile devices. For high performance note-
book PCs, a heat pipe requires heat dissipation of 30 to
50 W and 1.5 mm thickness. If the heat pipe is used for
cooling Note PC, the heat pipe is installed in a horizon-
tal position. In this case, the maximum heat transfer
rate (Qmax) of the heat pipe is expressed in the follow-
ing formulas, (1) and (2), which include the factors of
(QL)c-max and (Leff).

Heat Pipes
Cooling Electronics Snow melting
& Environment

Heat Pipes
module

Automotive Power/Energy

Hat Sink &

Heat Spreader

Data Center/Server Aviation

Vapor chamber
& Cold Plate

Fig. 4. The field of application of the thermal product

Fujikura Technical Review, 2013 71

 40 Top view of DCJ
Piezo device
Heat Dissipation (W)

30 Note PC AC Power

20
Thinner Heat Pipe
Ultra Thin PC

10
Tablet, Smart Blade
5 phone
40 mm
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Thickness of heat pipe T (mm)
Fig. 5. Required performance (the thickness and heat
Cross section view of DCJ
dissipation ) for cooling thin notebook PC and Tablet
Compression/Expulsion
40 1.0
Heat Dissipation (W)

Thermal Resistance,
D= 6 mm
R=(Te - Tc)/Q (C/W)
0.8 volume of Air
30
D= 5 mm 0.6
20
D= 4 mm 0.4 Expansion/Ingestion
10
0.2

0 0.0 volume of Air

0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Thickness heat pipe (mm)
D4_Qmax D5_Qmax D6_Qmax
D4_Resistance D5_Resistance D6_Resistance Principle

Fig. 6. Relation between thickness and maximum heat transfer Fig. 7. Structure and principle of piezo fan
rate (Qmax) in each size of MHP

Ta 3 mm Th
Qmax=(QL)c-max/Leff ……… (1) 42 mm Heat Sink
Leff=L - (Le + Lc)/2 ……… (2) Thin heat pipe
(1.5 mm)
Here, Heater
40 mm DCJ (12 ¥ 11)
Qmax : Maximum heat transfer rate of heat pipe
[W], (QL)c-max [W-m] : Factor of maximum heat
transfer of heat pipe with capillary wick structure
Heat Spreader
Leff: Effective length of heat pipe Tair - out
L: total length of heat pipe [m] Thermal performance
Le, Lc: evaporator, condenser length of heat pipe 120
Heater Temperature

Ambient 25°C
[m] 100
Th (degreeC)

In a conventional heat pipe, when it is pressed to 80

less than 1.5 mm in thickness, there is a problem that 60
the thermal performance decreases due to insufficient 40
space for vapor flow. Then, a new internal wick struc- 20
ture and surface treatment have been devised for im- 0
0 5 10 12 15
provement. Figure 6 shows the thermal performance Input power (W)
when the heat pipes of 4, 5, and 6 mm in diameter are
Fig. 8. Example of cooling performance of piezo fan combined
pressed to 1 to 2 mm in thickness. The results show
with thin heat pipe
that with the new internal structure, each heat pipe of
4, 5, 6 mm in diameter ensures heat transfer rates of
10, 13, 20 W even if each of them is pressed to 1.2 mm the structure of this piezo fan and the principle of op-
in thickness. eration. The circular piezo device is bonded to the
square metal blade, and then the same two parts are
2.2 Ultra-thin Piezo Fan bonded together. This structure enables a total thick-
A compact fan is also used for cooling a CPU of a ness of 1 to 1.5 mm. Figure 8 shows an example of as-
notebook PC, but conventional DC brushless fans semblies with a thin heat pipe and the piezo fan. This
have limitations in thickness up to 3 mm. So, we have cooling module has been developed to be used for
developed a 1 mm ultra-thin piezo fan. Figure 7 shows cooling ultra-thin notebook PCs and tablets.

72
2.3 Cooling module for power electronics (IGBT)
In recent years, as wind power systems and photo-
voltaic power generation systems are growing in de-
mand, there are growing demands for high-power
semiconductors used in electricity converters to con-
vert DC to AC. As shown in Fig. 9, direct contact cool-
ing method is applied to cooling IGBT instead of con-
ventional indirect cooling method. Figure 10 shows an
example of water cooling products for IGBT. The heat
dissipation is 2.5 kW at one side (approximately 20 W/
cm2 of heat flux).
c) Indirect Cooling b) Both side Cooling c) Direct Cooling
(Water/Air cooling) (Water cooling) (Water/Air cooling)
Fig. 9. Comparison of cooling method of IGBT module
3. T
 hermal Technology in data-center cooling
3)4)5)
3.1 Trends of data-center cooling technology
With increases in CPU heat dissipation, a hot spot
problem occurred in the air cooling system of data-
centers, which increased power consumption for cool-
ing sufficiently. Recently, data-centers have more ef-
fectively arranged equipment and control systems of
the facilities according to their heat generation.
The Green Grid recommends PUE (Power Usage
Effectiveness) to data-centers as the index.
PUE=P(total)/P(IT) … …… (3)
Here, P(total): Total power usage of data-center,
P(IT): Power usage of IT equipment of data-center
In Table 1, the comparison between air cooling sys-
tem and water cooling is shown. The water cooling is
confirmed more effective than air cooling to meet the
demands for high density assembly and performance
of the servers at data-centers.

3.2 Cold plate technology for CPU of cooling super

computer
The faster the calculation speed of a super computer
is, the more water cooling is needed for cooling its
CPUs because the system has high PUE.
To respond to the requirements for high perfor-
mance (thermal resistance of 0.05 °C/W) and me-
chanical strength (against inner pressure 1 MPa) of a
cooling module for high density assembly of data-cen-
ter, we built a cold plate with a micro channel heat
transfer surface.
The micro channel cold plate has much more sur-
Cooling module for IGBT Cooling module for IGBT face areas for heat transfer and higher heat transfer
Fig. 10. Application of cold plate for cooling power module of coefficient compare to conventional cold plate consist
power semiconductor of pin fins.

Table 1. Comparison between air cooling and water cooling of data center
Air Cooling Water Cooling
Advantage Easy to assembly High cooling capacity
(Changing position, restructure) High density of assembly
No piping of water Saving Power
Disadvantage and Need the space of heat sink module. Need water piping,
Countermeasure Hot spot and limitation of cooling capacity. Leakage of water
Cooling system and PUE=1.8-2.0 PUE=1.4-1.8
PUE (Power Usage
Rack AirAir mover
mover
Effectiveness) Rack AirAir Rack
Rack
Heat conditioner
conditioner
Heat Cold
Cold
sink
sink Plate
Plate Chiller
Chiller
CPU
CPU CPU
CPU
HotHot
HotHot
air air water
water
Cold
Cold
water
water
Cold
Cold air air
Pumping
Pumping unitunit

Fujikura Technical Review, 2013 73

 We built a cold plate with the upper part of a micro
channel brazed to the inside of the cover with the cov-
er brazed to the base. We adopted a special machining
method to manufacture micro channel fins.
In Fig. 11, the final design of the cooling unit is
shown. We completed the unit consisting of eight cold
plates, pipes and couplers, which were brazed togeth-
er, in cooperation with a customer who is in charge of
designing. This cold plate requires the reliability of
mechanical strength (1 MPa) as well as that of high
thermal performance.
Figure 12 shows a photo of the rack of a super com-
puter manufactured by our customer. This rack is
composed of 30 units of system boards, at each end of
which water cooling piping is placed. In the evalua-
tions by our customer, this cold plate could decrease
the temperature of the CPU drastically and also the
power consumption of CPU.
Cold plate
(8 pieces)
One touch
Coupler
Manifold
3.3 Proposal of energy conservation in data-center
5)6)
In the above, cooling technology of CPU is de-
scribed, on the other hand, an energy conservation of
cooling supply source in server or data-center is also
important item. The countermeasure is based on each
cooling system.
In Table 2, the comparison of cooling method and
installation condition between Japan and the USA of
cooling system of data-center is shown. In the USA,
large scale data-centers are installed outside of city,
and the cooling system is mostly water cooling. On the
other hand, in Japan, most of data-centers are installed
in city region, and cooling system is air cooling.
For energy conservation in cooling source of water
cooling system, we are proposing a system that utiliz-
ing the natural cold energy for cooling. Figure 13
shows the principle of our proposal by using heat
pipes. One of our proposals is that heat pipes are
cooled and water is iced in winter season, cold energy
is stored then the cold energy is used for cooling
source for back up source. This concept proposal will
be compact and occupied less space than conventional
water storage tank. Another proposal is pre-cooling of

Copper
tube
Table 2. Comparison of cooling method and installation
condition of data-center between Japan and USA

Place Japan USA

Transportation plate Installation site Inside of city Outside of city
(aluminum)
Space Limited space Large space
Fig. 11. Cooling Unit with cold plates Air cooling and
Cooling method Mainly air cooling
water cooling
Shut down Few Sometimes
Earthquake Often Few

Data center

Cold
Plate Hx Plate
32°C 32°C
22°C 60°C
CPU 22°C
25°C15°C

15°C
Cooling Natural cold energy
Tower Ta=0°C 20°C 27°C
Heat Pipes
HPHE
20°C 25°C Plate Heat
25°C Chiller Exchanger
20°C
0°C
Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger (HPHE) Pre-Cooler

Fig. 12. Photo of rack of Super computer equipped cold plate Fig. 13. Cooling system of Data center utilizing natural cold
units energy with heat pipes

74
cooling water of chiller by a heat exchanger of heat
pipes. Another proposal is pre-cooler which a heat ex-
changer of heat pipe type is installed in front piping
flow line of chiller for cooling water. This purpose is to
reduce the cooling load of the chiller, thus reduce the
power consumption, by utilizing natural cold energy.
It will be applicable to apply this system in North
America, where the freezing index is available and the
space for installation of heat pipes is also available in
large scale data-center. On the other hand, if the tem-
perature of inside of data-center is relaxed to be higher
temperature in air cooling system, heat exchanger
(air-air) of a heat pipe type will be possible to apply in
air cooling data-center with reasonable cost.
4. CONCLUSION
With the trend and need of thinner solution in PC
and electronics cooling, thinner heat pipe and piezo
fan will be needed. Also, for meeting the requirement
of high density assembly and high thermal perfor-
mance in power semiconductor and server of super
computer, cold plate technology with micro channel
structure has been developed and manufactured. We
Fujikura Technical Review, 2013
will continue to develop new products to expand the
sale market, and thermal technology will be expanded
with many applications.
References
1) M. Mochizuki et al “Current and future of cooling high per-
formance CPU” Fujikura Technical Journal, Apr, 2007, p33-
p43
2) Y. Kawahara, et al.: “One Millimeter Heat Pipe and Applica-
tion to Cooling Module for Electronic Devices”, Fujikura
Technical Review, Vol.40 (2011)
3) M. Mochizuki, et al.: “Advanced Micro-channel Vapor Cham-
ber For Cooling High Power Processors”, InterPACK 07,
2007
4) Y. Horiuchi, et al.: “Micro Channel Vapor Chamber for High
Heat Spreading”, 10th Electronics Packaging Technology
Conference, 2008
5) K
 . Mashiko, et al.: “Application of Micro-channel Fin of Liq-
uid Cooling System and Vapor Chamber”, InterPACK 09,
2009
6) M
 . Mochizuki, et al.: “Endless Possibilities Use of Heat Pipe
for Global Warming Reduction”, 10th International Heat Pipe
Symposium, 2011 Nov.
75