Advanced Heat Spreader Technology for Gallium Nitride (GaN) Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs)

In this Phase I effort, ThermAvant will design, fabricate and empirically demonstrate high-thermal conductivity heat spreaders for high power GaN Power Amplifiers (PAs) on advanced Navy platforms. The Oscillating Heat Pipe (OHP) is the core technology that will enable demonstration of structurally sound, thin-profile heat spreaders that can attach to PAs and dissipate their high heat fluxes with minimal thermal resistance. Innovations to standard OHPs include miniaturization of geometries, optimizing heat transfer rates of the internal fluid oscillations, and (importantly) the ability to manufacture OHP heat spreaders with sizes, materials and extreme survivability temperatures that are required by major defense contractors PA assembly processes which cannot be feasibly re-designed to accommodate the OHP heat spreader technology.