Project Abstract

While working to cool a chip with a high heat flux (100W/cm²), my initial optimization of fins, base, and fan proximity only yielded a 15% temperature drop. I demonstrated critical analysis by identifying the true bottleneck: high thermal spread resistance. My solution was to move beyond conventional cooling and implement more advanced thermal hardware, a vapor chamber and heat pipes. This multi-stage solution, which combined standard optimization with advanced heat spreading technology, showed my ability to diagnose a complex problem and find a non-obvious solution, ultimately allowing me to achieve a ~22% total drop in maximum temperature.