Microchannel heat sinks for cold plate liquid cooling in data centers: Advances, evaluations and prospects

The high integration and miniaturization of electronic components (CPUs, GPUs, IGBTs, ASICs) result in continuously increasing power consumption and heat flux density, making thermal dissipation increasingly severe. Microchannel heat sinks (MCHS), with advantages including compact size, large specific surface area, high heat transfer coefficient, and excellent stability, have become an effective solution for cooling high heat flux electronic components. This review analyzes recent research and application advances in MCHS for electronic cooling over the past five years by synthesizing literature on manufacturing materials, fabrication technologies, bionic design, and performance evaluation. The aim is to capture emerging trends and accelerate the practical application and commercialization of MCHS. Manufacturing materials for MCHS are systematically summarized, with emphasis on comparing the heat transfer performance of MCHS fabricated from different materials. Based on the evolution of manufacturing theory, MCHS fabrication technologies are divided into three stages: equivalent manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing, and additive manufacturing. Representative techniques at each stage are introduced, along with their advantages, limitations, and suitable materials. Leveraging unique biological topological structures and surface morphologies, recent progress in biomimetic MCHS for channel optimization and interface enhancement is reviewed. Furthermore, newly proposed performance evaluation metrics are compiled to facilitate multi-objective optimal design of MCHS.