Digitized Heat Transfer Using Electrowetting on Dielectric

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) as the driving force for digitized heat transfer (DHT), a novel approach to microscale thermal management in which system cooling is actively achieved via the manipulation of an array of discrete microdroplets. Galinstan, a nontoxic, readily available, inexpensive liquid alloy with 65 times less thermal resistance than water, is proposed as a viable DHT coolant. The nature of the EWOD driving force and the velocity of EWOD-actuated droplets are presented, along with an analysis demonstrating the advantages of DHT over some other methods of microscale heat control.

KEY WORDS:

• digitized heat transfer
• microfluidics
• electrowetting
• thermal management

The authors would like to acknowledge partial support by AFOSR Contract No. FA9550-05-1‐0334 and NSF Contract No. CTS-0540004.

Notes

¹See www.geratherm.com/en/technologie_galinstan

2. Reliability Prediction of Electronic Equipment, DOD paper MIL-HDBK-217C, New York, 1980.