Packaging and Thermal Management for kW/cm2 Microwave Amplifiers

"It is proposed to develop micro-jet cooling arrays (MJCA) to obtain high heat flux density cooling for microwave amplifiers. MJCA has advantages over existing technologies both in terms of the thermal load that it can remove and in terms of maintainingthe junction temperature at acceptable levels. MJCA will be fabricated by the LIGA technique. The Phase I effort will demonstrate 100x100 array of micro-jets with diameters in the range of 100-400 microns. The Phase II effort will involve fabrication ofa complete cooling cycle based on MJCA and testing of the developed system in a high power density system. Effective removal of waste heat from high power devices has applications in a large variety of military and commercial systems. The proposed thermal management system promises to result in a compact, low weight, and low cost heat removal system thatwould meet the heat removal needs of current and future generations of high power systems."