Development and thermal performance of a vapor chamber with multi-artery reentrant microchannels for high-power LED

This study developed a vapor chamber (VC) with radial multi-artery reentrant microchannels for thermal management of high-power light emitting diodes (LEDs). It featured Ω-shaped reentrant microchannels inside porous wicks to provide separated flow passages for vapor and liquid flow. It was integrated with a high-power LED module for fast heat dissipation and efficient thermal management. Experiments were systematically conducted to evaluate thermal performance of the VC for a wide range of input power of LEDs, air flow rates and inclination angles of LED module. The VC was compared to a copper plate heat sink in the same operation conditions. Results show that compared to the copper plate, the VC presented a faster temperature rise, and was earlier to reach equilibrium state. The VC reduced the substrate surface temperature of LED module for 7–27%, and introduced a reduction in the thermal resistance for 19–48%, indicating that the VC enhanced cooling capacity remarkably and yield a notable favorable performance for the heat dissipations of LEDs. The thermal performance of the VC was significantly dependent on the input power of LEDs and air flow rates, whereas the inclination angle of LED module showed negligible effects on thermal performance.