Highly efficient bio-inspired manifold microchannel cooling for steady-state and transient thermal management of high-power chips

Driven by the performance demands of microprocessors and power chips, integrated circuit chips are trending towards increasing the number of transistors and chip area. Consequently, the rising thermal design power necessitates efficient heat dissipation to ensure chip performance and reliability. In this study, a bio-inspired manifold ring-shaped channel cold plate was designed for cooling high-power chips, drawing inspiration from the fluid pathways found in lotus leaves. The microchannels and manifold were fabricated from copper following numerical topology optimization and subsequently assembled using silver sintering. Experimental results demonstrate a coefficient of performance (COP) exceeding 1.8 × 105 at a total power input of 718 W, representing an order-of-magnitude improvement over previously reported values. The optimized heat sink achieves a remarkable heat dissipation capacity of 1987 W (corresponding to a heat flux 633 W/cm2) with a pressure drop of 25.22 kPa and a thermal resistance of 0.0878 (cm2 K)/W. Compared with conventional parallel-microchannel designs, the new bio-inspired structure reduces pressure drop by 50.72 % and enhances temperature uniformity by 43.74 %, attributed to its improved fluid flow distribution. Finally, the transient thermal performance was evaluated under pulsed and periodic heating conditions. The results reveal that transient temperature distribution correlates closely with the thermal time constant, and that both duty ratio and frequency significantly influence transient temperature evolution. This research provides a highly efficient cooling strategy and design guidance for both steady-state and transient thermal management of high-power chips.