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Jet-enhanced manifold microchannels for cooling electronics up to a heat flux of 3,000 W cm−2

Nature Electronics volume 8, pages 810–817 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The miniaturization of advanced electronics can lead to high heat fluxes, which must be dissipated before they cause device degradation or failure. Embedded microfluidic cooling is of potential value in such systems, but devices are typically limited to heat fluxes below 2,000 W cm−2. Here we report a microfluidic cooling strategy that can dissipate heat fluxes up to 3,000 W cm−2 at a pumping power of only 0.9 W cm−2 using single-phase water as the coolant. Our approach is based on a three-tier structure that consists of a tapered manifold layer on the top, a microjet layer in the middle and a microchannel layer with sawtooth-shaped sidewalls at the bottom. The structures are etched directly into the backside of the silicon substrate using standard microelectromechanical system technology. Moreover, the coefficient of performance can reach 13,000 and dissipate a heat flux of 1,000 W cm−2 at a maximum chip temperature rise of 65 K.

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Fig. 1: Jet-enhanced manifold microchannels for embedded chip cooling.
Fig. 2: Design of the microchannels and the electrical layer.
Fig. 3: Basic thermo-hydraulic characterizations and comparisons.
Fig. 4: Maximum cooling performance.

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Data availability

Source data are provided with this paper. Further data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant number 2023YFB4404100, W.W.), the Scientific Research Innovation Capability Support Project for Young Faculty (grant number ZYGXQNJSKYCXNLZCXM-E1, B.S.) from the Ministry of Education of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 52076002, B.S.), the National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, the Molecular Materials and Nanofabrication Laboratory, and the High-Performance Computing Platform of Peking University. B.S. acknowledges support from the New Cornerstone Science Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Zhihu Wu, Wei Xiao, Haiyu He & Bai Song

  2. National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, Beijing, China

    Zhihu Wu, Wei Xiao, Haiyu He, Wei Wang & Bai Song

  3. School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Wei Wang

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  1. Zhihu Wu
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  2. Wei Xiao
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  3. Haiyu He
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  4. Wei Wang
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Contributions

B.S. and Z.W. conceived the research. B.S. and W.W. supervised the research. Z.W. and H.H. fabricated the devices. Z.W. and W.X. conducted the thermo-hydraulic measurements and analyses. Z.W. and B.S. prepared the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bai Song.

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Nature Electronics thanks Junrui Lyu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–6, Tables 1–3 and references.

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Source Data Fig. 3

Statistical source data for Fig. 3.

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Wu, Z., Xiao, W., He, H. et al. Jet-enhanced manifold microchannels for cooling electronics up to a heat flux of 3,000 W cm−2. Nat Electron 8, 810–817 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01449-4

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