Open Access

REVIEW

REVIEW OF VARIOUS THIN HEAT SPREADER VAPOR CHAMBER DESIGNS, PERFORMANCE, LIFETIME RELIABILITY AND APPLICATION

Masataka Mochizuki^a,*,†, Thang Nguyen^b

a The Heat Pipe, 1-4-33-1022 Shiohama, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0043, Japan
b Fujikura Ltd, 1-5-1 Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8512, Japan
† Corresponding author. Email: mochizuki.masataka@gmail.com

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2019, 13, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.5098/hmt.13.12

Abstract

The cooling device for computers and electronics is getting smaller and thinner year after year, especially for the mobile handheld device such as smartphone which is the most popular gadget and widely use nowadays. It seems that in the current trend every 6-12 months a new model of smartphone is introduced and it was packed with faster processing processor, memories, and graphics, higher density battery, higher resolution for camera and video and so on. The drawback is the device getting hotter due to the increase of heat dissipation caused by faster computing. The traditional method of cooling by purely metal heat conducting is no longer viable. In the recent year thin heat pipes had been introduced to smartphone for better transfer and spreading the heat for cooling. Thin heat spreader vapor chamber becoming more attractive for smartphone cooling due to its potential superior heat transfer than thin heat pipe. Typically heat pipe or vapor chamber for cooling smart phone is less than 0.4 mm thick. This paper is a review and comparison on the structural design and thermal performance of various thin heat spreader vapor chambers on development or available off the shelves. Discussion on material compatibility, non-condensable gas generation and lifetime reliability of heat pipe and vapor chamber will be also included. Lastly some examples of application presented.

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