The thickness of the Loop Heat Pipe compared to a penny

The University of Cincinnati, along with Texas A & M, Thermacore, GRC and LaRC, has pioneered the macro-porous silicon wet-etching process, and has performed preliminary testing to demonstrate the concept of a silicon loop heat pipe wick. This ability to fabricate a loop heat pipe in silicon would allow a very small temperature drop between the die and the ultimate heat sink, the radiator. Current radiators for space applications typically operate at the box baseplate temperature, which is near 25 °C. If a space-based radiator could operate at a much higher temperature, say, at the temperature of a die (~ 125 °C), the radiator weight savings would be substantial, since thermal radiation heat transfer is a function of temperature to the fourth power.

Last Revision: December 12, 2000

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Last Updated: 07/31/2002