Application of Mini Heat Pipes for Thermal Management of Opto-electronic Instruments

Heat dissipation, thermal stresses, size and cost are the key packaging design issues for electronic and optoelectronic instruments. As per defense requirement, instruments are expected to work satisfactorily in the temperature range of -30C to +55C. In this study, we have explored the thermal management of a sealed enclosure, envisaged as housing for handheld instruments, using different active and passive techniques such as natural convection, conventional heat sinks and copper-water wicked mini-heat pipes. Microelectronic equipment inside the enclosure generated heat. The aim of the study was to apply and compare various thermal management techniques suitable for maintaining a safe operating temperature inside the enclosure. Transient numerical modeling was performed on a commercial platform to compare the various techniques available for thermal management. Effects of both, natural convection inside the enclosure and radiation, were taken into account. The results from the CFD simulations were verified with the real time system level experiments. It was observed that in handheld opto-electronic instruments, heat pipes have potential applications to achieve the required performance in the available enclosure volume.