Abstract
Power semiconductors operating under high heat fluxes and elevated temperatures rely on liquid-cooled heat sinks with substantial coolant volumes. Recent advancements in direct-to-chip (D2C) cooling techniques have shown enhanced thermal performance, reduced energy consumption, compact form factor, and minimized coolant usage. However, integrating microchannels onto semiconductor substrates poses significant fabrication challenges. Hence, we propose a direct-to-package (D2P) cooling approach that embeds microchannels within the package substrate, thereby bypassing the need for Thermal Interface Materials and complex fabrication processes. This D2P approach achieves high heat flux dissipation (up to ~ 625 W cm−2) tested in this study, while consuming a fraction of the coolant volume ( ~ 2 − 4 mL). The co-packaged architecture demonstrates ~ 6 − 7 × lower junction temperatures and thermal resistances than ambient-air cooling and ~ 2 − 3 × lower than heat sink cooling. A very high coefficient of performance is achieved, with an effective global Nusselt number > 10. This work establishes D2P liquid cooling integration as a scalable and energy-efficient approach for high-power systems.
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This manuscript is part of the corresponding author’s (Henry A. Martin) Phd dissertation that is stored publicly as Prognostics and thermal management of power electronic packages. The experimental data that pertains to this manuscript are stored in the public repository https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31073227.
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No custom code or mathematical algorithm that is deemed central to the conclusions has been developed for this manuscript.
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Acknowledgements
This work has been made possible through the Dutch Growth Fund Programme POLARIS (Pathway towards Opportunities for Large scale Applications of Radically Integrated Systems). The POLARIS programme seeks to advance the state of the art RF systems and invests in Research & Development as well as developing human capital and ecosystems. The authors gratefully acknowledge Berliner Nanotest and Design GmbH for the thermal test chip used in this work. The authors extend their gratitude to fellow researchers from the Delft University of Technology (TUD) and Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) for their valuable support, particularly Frans Meeuwsen—Packaging Engineer at CITC, Jackson Gualberto de Sousa—Process Engineer at CITC, and Martien Kengen—Lab and Assembly Process Manager at CITC. Special thanks to John Janssen from NXP for supporting with the IR measurements for device calibration.
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• Henry A. Martin: Conceptualization; Methodology; Validation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Resources; Data curation; Writing—Original Draft; Writing—Review and Editing; Visualization. • Zihan Zhang: Software (thermal simulations); Validation support. • Mahad Saeed: Investigation. • Sander Dorrestein: Conceptualization; Resources. • Edsger C. P. Smits: Conceptualization; Supervision; Project administration. • Rene H. Poelma: Conceptualization; Supervision. • Willem D. van Driel: Supervision. • GuoQi Zhang: Supervision.
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Martin, H.A., Zhang, Z., Saeed, M. et al. Co-packaged electronics with microfluidics for direct-to-package cooling. Commun Eng (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44172-026-00620-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44172-026-00620-9
