Structural Improvement and Heat Transfer Analysis of a Vapor Chamber with Embedded Liquid-Cooled Channels

Abstract With the widespread application of high heat-flux electronics, vapor chambers(VC) need to possess enhanced thermal performance. To this end, a novel VC with embedded spiral liquid-cooled channels (VC-ELCC) is proposed, thereby ensuring excellent temperature uniformity while improving cooling efficiency and thermal response speed. We developed a numerical model of the VC-ELCC to analyze the heat transfer under different structural dimensions and varying heat fluxes. Based on the simulation results, a VC-ELCC with a chamber height of 3 mm and a spiral channel aspect ratio of 5:6 was designed. Finally, we fabricated a VC-ELCC prototype with identical dimensions and validated its thermal performance on an established platform. The results demonstrate that, compared to a vapor chamber with non-embedded liquid-cooled channels (VC-NLCC), the VC-ELCC effectively reduces thermal resistance, improves temperature uniformity, and shortens the thermal response time. The experimental results agree well with the simulations. Under three heat flux conditions of 56 kW/m2, 83 kW/m2, and 100 kW/m2, the thermal response time constant were 3.4 s, 4.25 s, and 4.5 s, respectively—reducing response times by 41.3%, 29.2%, and 28.6% compared to VC-NLCC. These findings highlight the potential of this integrated design for thermal management.