Large-Scale Vapor Chambers Enabled by Liquid Film Boiling for High-Power Electronics Cooling

  • YANG Yaoqi ,
  • HAN Zhaoyang ,
  • WANG Mengyao ,
  • JIANG Weiyu ,
  • HAO Tingting ,
  • MA Xuehu ,
  • WEN Rongfu
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  • 1. State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Frontier Science Center for Smart Materials, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
    2. Liaoning Key Laboratory Clean Utilization of Chemical Resources, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

Online published: 2025-10-29

Supported by

This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2022YFB3806504) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52376047). We sincerely thank the Xingliao Talent Program of Liaoning Province (Grant No. XLYC2203193) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. DUT24ZD201, DUT22LAB610, DUT23BK017, and DUT23BK046).

Copyright

Science Press, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025

Abstract

Challenges of electronic cooling are becoming increasingly urgent due to the exponential rise in power densities and the non-uniform distribution of heat sources. Vapor chambers utilizing liquid-vapor phase change heat transfer are appealing due to their high performance and potentially low cost. However, heat dissipation performance, depending on the thin film evaporation, is limited by the capillary dry-out of wicking structures. Here, we demonstrate a large-scale vapor chamber enabled by high-performance liquid film boiling mode on the hierarchical mesh-wicking structures for high-power electronics cooling. The composite columns integrating with copper foam and copper powder are patterned in a zoned configuration to promote vapor diffusion and two-phase flow. The effects of the filling rate and cooling water temperature on the vapor flow and liquid film distribution are investigated. The results show that the X-shaped distribution of composite columns in the heat source region promotes the vapor diffusion throughout the vapor chamber, resulting in a thermal resistance of 0.04°C/W at the heat flux of 100 W/cm2 from an area of 775 mm2. The findings provide theoretical guidance for the structure design of high-performance large vapor chambers.

Cite this article

YANG Yaoqi , HAN Zhaoyang , WANG Mengyao , JIANG Weiyu , HAO Tingting , MA Xuehu , WEN Rongfu . Large-Scale Vapor Chambers Enabled by Liquid Film Boiling for High-Power Electronics Cooling[J]. Journal of Thermal Science, 2025 , 34(6) : 2059 -2071 . DOI: 10.1007/s11630-025-2202-6

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