The Miniaturization of a Refrigeration Vapor Compression System and Application to the Cooling of High Power Microelectronics

The study develops an analytical model of an optimized small scale refrigeration system using ejector vapor compression, with application to the cooling of the electronic components populating a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) in a High-Power Microelectronics System. The authors' previous studies [1 - 3] evaluated a vapor compression system using an off-the-shelf mechanical compressor and associated components, focusing mainly on the thermal feasibility of the mechanical refrigeration system and on-chip system-level incorporation. Present investigation focuses on the miniaturization of the various components of the vapor compression system (targeting the alternative ejector vapor compressor), with the intent to establish a cooling system for high power microelectronics, designed to fit smaller packages populating PCB, yet using a different approach for the vapor compression process. The previous study [1] evaluated several optimized evaporator designs for the mechanical compression system. The current design with miniaturized ejector is evaluated to address similar power dissipation ranges as before. In the final section of the study, the efficiency of the proposed ejector vapor compression system is compared to mechanical compression designs at same cooling powers. It is the intent of the authors to present an alternative vapor compression system and identify the pros and cons of implementing such a system to real-life microelectronics applications.