Silicon Cold Plate for CubeSat/SmallSat Thermal Control

The development of advanced small spacecraft with increased capability and performance requires new technologies and approaches to thermal management. Newer and more complex integrated electronics add to mission capability but also produce more waste heat. Traditional methods of metal heat pipes or structures have issues when scaling to accommodate higher thermal loads, especially in the vacuum and extreme conditions of space. Eotron has developed a 3D silicon front end to a fluid pump loop cooling system that offers improved performance in a compact light-weight form factor. The proposed Silicon Cold Plate makes direct contact with high thermal flux devices and removes waste heat through a series of fluid channels internal to the silicon. The Silicon Plate is bonded to the system PCB at thermal Via points to remove additional heat and provide electrical and system connection to other electronic components. Fluid, moving through silicon's internal channels is then moved to another area for thermal radiation by a system pump. In this proposal, the company outlines its plans to design, fabricate and test a prototype to prove its capability to remove a typical high thermal load from a compact system along with basic reliability testing on the fluid system. Silicon's advantages of light-weight, high thermal conductivity and non-reactive nature to liquids make it ideal for this application.