Cu Nanostructures for Enhanced Heat Transferin Micro Systems

Abstract

Vertically aligned copper (Cu) nanorod arrays fabricated by glancing angle deposition
(GLAD) technique was used to study the heat transfer by natural convection in micro systems.
These nanorods were deposited on Cu thin film surface, which was coated on Si (100) wafer
substrates. For comparison, planar Cu thin film samples were also produced by normal incidence
deposition. This study focuses on investigating experimentally the heat transfer by natural
convection from the sample (nanostructured plate) to the surrounding air. Newton's lawof cooling
has been utilized to calculate thefree-convection heat transfer coefficient for Cu nanorods as well
as Cu thin film. Compered to Cu thin film samples, it has been found that the heat transfer
coefficient values of Cu nanorods are higherdue to the enhanced heat transfer-surface area, which
causes a significant reduction in thermal resistance. These nanostructured surfaces offer an
effective method of device cooling such as for small electronic devices, micro-reactors and air
conditioning.