Fabrication and Testing of Micro-Channel Heat Exchangers

J.M. Cuta, W.D. Bennett, C.E. McDonald, and T.S. Ravigururajan

Pacific Northwest Laboratory

Richiand, WA 99352

ABSTRACT

Micro-channel heat-exchanger test articles were fabricated and performance tested. The heat exchangers are being
developed for innovative applications, and have been shown to be capable of handling heat loads of up to 100
W/cm2. The test articles were fabricated to represent two different designs for the micro-channel portion of the heat
exchanger. One design consists of 166 micro-channels etched in silicon substrate, and a second design consists of
54 micro-channels machined in copper substrate.

The devices were tested in an experimental loop designed for performance testing in single- and two-phase flow with
water and R124. Pressure and liquid subcooling can be regulated over the range of interest, and a secondary heat
removal loop provides stable loop performance for steady-state tests. The selected operating pressures are
approximately 0.344 MPa for distilled water and 0.689 MPa for R124. The temperature ranges are 15.5 to 138 C
for distilled water and 15.5 to 46 C for R-124. The mass flow rate range 7.6x108 to 7.6x105 kg/mm for both
distilled water and R124.

Keyword list: micro-channel heat exchangers, high flux heat transfer

1. INTRODUCTION

Design of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) presents new and unique engineering problems in the areas
of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, material properties, and fabrication technology. One of the most critical areas is
the design and fabrication of components for microscale thermal systems, including heat exchangers, heat pumps,
and micro-compressors, which are being developed" at Pacific Northwest Laboratory'. In many of these
applications of microtechnology there are components or devices that utilize micro-channel fluid flow. A
fundamental understanding of flow and heat transfer behavior at this scale is essential to the ability to analyze and
predict single- phase and two-phase characteristics for the design and analysis of systems and devices utilizing this
technology.

This paper describes the design and fabrication of micro-channel heat exchanger test articles, and presents
preliminary results from performance testing evaluations. The objective of this testing is to characterize the heat
transfer performance of micro-channel devices of varying geometries and materials over a range of flow rates,
pressures, and temperatures. The test articles model heat exchangers that are being developed for innovative
applications, and are designed for heat loads up to 100 W/cm2. The heat exchangers consist of evaporator and
condenser sections separated by a thermal insulator, but the test articles consist of only the micro-channel portion
of the heat exchanger. In the testing, heat loads are simulated using an electrical resistance heater attached to the
back of the test article.

2. TEST ARTICLE DESIGN AND FABRICATION

Heat exchanger performance testing is generally concerned with determining an overall heat transfer coefficient for
heat transfer between two different fluid streams. This approach, however, assumes some basic understanding of
the heat transfer processes in the heat absorbing and heat rejecting sides of the device. In the case of micro-channel

1The Pacific Northwest Laboratory is operated by Battelle Memorial Institiute for the Department of
Energy under operating contract No. DE-ACO6-76RL0 1830.

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 heat exchangers, the fluid flow and heat transfer behavior within the micro-channels is not well understood, and it
is necessary to first determine the performance of the individual components of the heat exchanger. The test articles
are designed to simulate the heat absorbing component of a micro-channel heat exchanger. The heat input is
simulated with a resistance heater, and testing is performed for a range of flow rates, inlet subcooling of the working
fluid, and input power to the heater.

Performance is evaluated by measuring the pressure drop across the micro-channels over a range of flow rates, along
with the fluid inlet and exit temperature, heater surface temperature, and power input to the heater. This gives an
indication of the heat transfer performance that can expected in a given micro-channel design. In actual practice,
of course, the performance of micro-channel heat exchangers will depend on a number of factors, including channel
geometry, materials of construction, and the operating temperatures and pressures. Concerns related to issues such
as material compatibility and fabrication methods need to be addressed in the design of the test article and are
discussed in an accompanying paper2.

2.1 Test articles

The main appeal of micro-channel heat exchangers lies in the enhanced heat transfer expected to be realized from
the large surface-to-volume ratio and high aspect ratio of the narrow fins forming the micro-channels. Previous
work0 has indicated that there should be significantly higher heat transfer coefficients at lower pressure drops than
encountered in conventional large-scale heat exchangers. It is also expected that two-phase heat transfer in micro-
channels may lead to significantly more efficient heat transfer, albeit at a cost of higher pressure drops. To
investigate these possibilities, two different designs were developed for the test articles, one using copper substrate
in which the micro-channels were cut by conventional machining, and one using silicon substrate, in which the
micro-channels were cut by chemical or ion beam etching.

The metal test articles consist of a copper substrate and a stainless steel cover, as shown in Figure 1 . The copper
substrate was machined to form the micro-channels. The stainless steel top piece fits over the micro-channels to
seal the channels at the top and to form the inlet and outlet headers. The two metal pieces are bolted together and
sealed with an o-ring. The micro-channels were cut with a diamond slitting saw, and are 1000 m deep by 270 jzm
wide. A total of 54 micro-channels 2.052 cm long were cut in the copper substrate, with a centerline distance
between the micro-channels of 540 m Including the inlet and outlet headers, the micro-channel region of the test
article is 2.25 cm by 2.42 cm overall. Two metal test articles were fabricated and tested. They were exactly the
same except that in one of the test articles, four diagonal cuts were made across the parallel micro-channel pattern,
to open lateral flow paths between channels.

For the silicon test articles, two designs were developed. The channel patterns are the same in both cases, but the
packaging of the test article is different. Figure 2 shows the first design, referred to as Design A, and Figure 3
shows the second design, referred to as Design B.

Design A, shown in Figure 2, contains a micro-channel pattern etched on one side of a silicon wafer 0.23 cm thick.
The micro-channels are approximately 100 jm deep and 100 jm wide ,produced by chemical etching techniques
and are capped with a sheet of 0.64 cm thick Pyrex electrostatically bonded to the silicon wafer. There are 166
micro-channels approximately 2.052 cm long in the etched pattern. The patterned area, including the inlet and outlet
headers, is approximately 3.4 cm wide by 2.5 cm long. Stainless steel end pieces were then bonded to the Pyrex
insulator with an optical adhesive used tojoin metal to glass. Fittings to mate the test article with the test loop could
then be attached to the stainless steel end pieces.

Design A worked reasonably well for low pressure isothermal testing over a large range of flow rates and pressure
drops. However, when subjected to thermal stresses in heated tests, the devices failed with distressing regularity.
The changes implemented in Design B, shown in Figure 3, made the device sturdy enough to withstand the effects
of heating up to temperatures as high as 100 C. In this design, the same micro-channel pattern is used, and it is
capped as in Design A with a 0.64 cm thick Pyrex sheet. The silicon substrate, however, is the standard wafer

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 thickness of 375 m, and the inlet and outlet penetrations are through the silicon wafer in the center of the inlet
and outlet heaters, instead of through the Pyrex cover. In addition, the silicon substrate is reinforced by bonding
to a copper plate using a thermally conductive adhesive. Prior to bonding, holes were machined in the copper plate
at locations corresponding to the inlet and outlet holes in the headers etched into the silicon.

2.2 Test article film heater

Because the nominal area of the micro-channel region in a test article is only about 2 cm by 2 cm, there is very little
space available in which to supply heat to the working fluid. One purpose of the testing program is to demonstrate
the capability to sustain heat fluxes on the order of 100 W/cm2 in a micro-channel heat exchanger, so it was
necessary to design a heater that could generate up to 400 W in a space of only 4 cm2. This was accomplished by
means of a metal film resistance heater. The heater consists of a thin titanium film sputter-deposited to a thickness
of only a few thousand angstroms on the back side of the test article, covering an area corresponding to the area
of the micro-channels.

In Design A, the film was deposited directly onto the back side of the silicon substrate (see Figure 2). For Design
B and also for the metal test articles, the film was deposited onto an alumina wafer that was bonded to the back side
of the copper substrate using a conductive epoxy (see Figures 3 and 1 , respectively). A thin layer of chromium is
deposited over the titanium film to prevent oxidation. Gold busbars are deposited along two parallel edges of the
titanium film, and leads for introducing electric current to the film are then soldered to the gold busbars. Figure
4 shows a detailed schematic of the film heater design used with all of the test articles.

3. TEST LOOP DESCRWFION

The micro-channel heat exchanger test ioop has been designed for use in experimental investigations of micro-
channel heat transfer and fluid mechanics. The operational capabilities of the loop are defined as flexibly as
possible, so that the loop can be used to investigate a wide range of flow and heat transfer behavior, over as wide
an operating range as possible. A diagram of the test loop configuration is shown in Figure 5. It consists of three
main sections; the primary circulation loop, the test loop branch, and the secondary heat removal ioop.

The primary circulation loop is used to pressurize the system to the desired operating pressure, and provides the
driving pressure drop for the test loop. The working fluid can be water or R124. The primary circulation loop
consists of the surge tank, a metering valve, and a Micropump circulation pump. The pump was selected to have
a relatively constant flow rate for a large range of pressure drops, so that primary 1oop flow would not vary
significantly for a range of control valve settings.

The test loop branch provides measurement and control of conditions to be tested in the micro-channel test article.
The components of the test loop are a 1Om filter, positive displacement flowmeter, preheater, the test article, the
shell side of shell-and-tube heat exchanger, and two metering valves to control the flow rate in the test ioop branch.

The secondary heat removal loop consists of the tube side of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger, a circulation pump,
a turbine flowmeter, and a cold water or ice bath for a heat sink. It provides measurement and control of the rate
of heat removal from the test loop. The secondary heat removal 1oop also provides stable loop performance for
steady-state tests.

The loop instrumentation is designed to give measurements of flow rate in the test loop and in the secondary ioop,
and fluid state (i.e. , pressure and temperature) at various points around the primary, test, and secondary loops.
Thermocouples and pressure sensors have been installed in the surge tank, at the inlet and outlet to the preheater,
the inlet and outlet of the test article, the inlet and outlet of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger on both the primary
and secondary side, and in other key locations in the test loop.

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 A key consideration in designing the test loop is the instrumentation of the test article. It would be desirable to have
pressure and temperature measurements in the micro-channels. However, the extremely small dimensions of the
micro-channels preclude instrumentation by conventional means. For these initial investigations, measurements of
pressure and temperature are obtained only from instrumentation at the inlet and outlet of the test article. For the
range of flow rates to be considered in these tests, essentially all of the measured pressure drop occurs in the micro-
channel region of the test articles. At flow rates below 100 ml/min, calculations show that the pressure losses
are negligible (i.e., less than 0.0035 MPa) in the inlet and outlet fittings to the test article. At flow rates on the
order of 500 mI/mm, these losses approach 0.0069 MPa.

The measured flow rate for the test loop is a bulk value for the whole micro-channel region, and cannot be measured
for individual micro-channels. Measurements of the surface temperature on the outside of the film heater are
obtained with miniature RTD thermocouples bonded to the heater section, as shown in Figure 4. In conjunction with
the measured fluid temperatures at the test article inlet and outlet, and the known power input to the film heater,
these temperature measurements can be used to obtain an estimate of the heat transfer rates in the micro-channels.

4. TEST RESULTS

Measurements have been obtained in both the metal and silicon test articles using distilled water as the working fluid
in single phase flow. Due to difficulties encountered with the fragility of the test articles, very few measurements
were made in the silicon test articles for heated conditions, and none were obtained in two-phase flow conditions.
For the metal test articles, however, measurements have been obtained in both heated single-phase flow with distilled
water as the working fluid, and in heated single- and two-phase flow with R124.

4.1 Metal test articles: single phase water

A range of flow rates were investigated in the metal test articles using distilled water at a nominal pressure of 0.308
MPa. At a flow rate of 209. 1 mI/mm, a maximum power input was 402.5 W was obtained, yielding a temperature
rise in the fluid from inlet to outlet in the test article from 28 C to 44.5 C. The measured temperature on the surface
ofthe film heater was 1 12 C, and the a pressure drop across the test article was only 0.0207 MPa. This power input
corresponds to a maximum heat flux of 99. 1 W/cm2.

Single-phase flow tests with the metal test articles show that very high flow rates can be achieved in this micro-
channel geometry with relatively low pressure drops. The pressure drop at 517 mI/mm was less than 0.035 MPa,
and heat removal rates were comparable to what could be expected for a macro-channel flow under the same
conditions.

4.2 Silicon test articles: single phase water

A range of flow rates were investigated in the Design A silicon test articles, using distilled water at a nominal
pressure of 0.308 MPa. Most of the tests were performed under isothermal conditions, where typical flow rates
obtained were on the order of 120 mI/mm, at a pressure drop of 0. 1 17 MPa. These test articles failed at a heat flux
of about 25 W/cm2 when power was applied to the film heater, thus necessitating the development of Design B.
The Design B test articles were not tested with distilled water.

4.3 Metal test articles: single-phase R124

A range of flow rates were investigated with the two metal test articles in heated single-phase tests with R124. The
two test articles are designated HEX-i for the one with four diagonal cuts crossing the parallel channel array , and
HEX-2 for the one with intact parallel channels. Tests were performed at nominal flow rates from approximately
40 mi/mn up to 300 mI/mm, for different powers and inlet temperatures. With R124 as the working fluid,
measurements at the same power levels as in the distilled water tests show noticeably higher surface temperatures,
due to the lower heat carrying capacity of the refrigerant, in comparison to that of distilled water.

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 Figure 6 shows the surface temperature as a function of the power level for both water and R124 in the metal test
articles. The peak surface temperature range is between 20 to 100 C. The figure shows the surface temperatures
for different flow rates. As would be expected, the surface temperature increases with increasing power at a given
flow rate. At low flow rates, higher surface temperatures are attained at much lower power levels.

Figure 7 shows the surface temperature as a function of power level at relatively high flow rates for the metal test
articles (HEX-i and HEX-2), and for the silicon test article, designated HEX-3. The working fluid in the tests with
the silicon test article is water; for the metal test articles, the working fluid is R124. Comparing the measured
temperatures at a flow rate of 100 ml/min for the metal test article (HEX-i in Figure 6) and the silicon test article
(HEX-3 in Figure 7), the temperatures are generally lower in the silicon test article. This is because the Si substrate
is a better conductor, so the heat flows much more easily through the material, resulting in lower heat losses and
a higher outlet temperature.

5. CONCLUSION

Analysis of these preliminary results indicates that substantial amounts of heat can be removed with micro-channel
heat exchangers at relatively low single-phase flow rates. The geometry of the micro-channel pattern affects both
the flow rate and heat transfer rate. The material that the micro-channels are cut or etched into is also important,
since the thermal conductivity influences the temperature gradient attained in the material between the two heat
transfer surfaces.

Further work is needed to fully characterize the flow and heat transfer behavior over a large range of flow conditions
in single-phase flow for a variety of micro-channel geometries. Investigations of two-phase flow are also needed,
to determine the effectiveness of boiling heat transfer in micro-channels.

6. REFERENCES

1. R.S Wegeng and M.K. Drost. "Developing new miniature energy systems", Mechanical Engineering, Sept.
1994, pg 82-85.

2. P.M. Martin, W.D. Bennett, and J.W. Johnston. "Micro-channel heat exchangers for advanced climate control",
SPIE: Micromachining and Microfabrication '95 Conference, Microlithography and Metrology in Micromachining
Session, Austin TX, October 23-24, 1995.

3. R.J. Phillips, "Micro-channel Heat Sinks", in Advances in Thermal Modeling of Electronic Components and
Systems, Vol 2, ASME Press, New York, 1990

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 inlet

Stainless steel frame

Channel pattern
%- ,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,_
. %% \% %% %% % %%% %% % %%% % %%%%

inlet

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Figure 1. Metaltest aiticle: microchannels cut in copper substrate, with stainless steel cover.

Stainless steel shoulder Outlet

(repeat on inlet side) .

Pyrex

Header

Inlet

Figure 2. Silicon test article - Design A: microchannels etc1d in silicon substrate, with Pyrex cover and staiuless steel
shoulders.

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 (r
\/
(' 111 )-
fterned
Pyrex

Cu substrate

Figure 3. Silicon test article -Design B: microchannels etched in silicon substrate, with Pyrex cover and copper backing
plate.

Cu or Si substrate

I, Alumina wafer

Gold busbars

Figure 4. Diagram of titanium-film heater design.

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 V
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Metering Valves a.
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Figure 5. Test ioop configuration diagram

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Figure 6. Surface temperature as a function of power input at different flow rates

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Figure 7. Surface temperature as a function of power input for metal and silicon test articles

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