Development of EHD Ion-Drag Micropump for Microscale Electronics Cooling Systems

TL;DR

This paper presents a numerical study of EHD ion-drag micropumps with micropillar electrodes, showing how geometry and voltage influence performance, and identifying optimal design parameters for improved microscale cooling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel micropillar electrode design for EHD micropumps and analyzes the effects of geometric parameters on performance through simulations.

Findings

Optimal micropillar height is 40μm at 200V for maximum flow.

3D micropillar electrodes outperform planar electrodes.

Performance improves with higher voltage and smaller electrode spacing.

Abstract

In this investigation, the numerical simulation of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) ion-drag micropumps with micropillar electrode geometries have been performed. The effect of micropillar height and electrode spacing on the performance of the micropumps was investigated. The performance of the EHD micropump improved with increased applied voltage and decreased electrode spacing. The optimum micropillar height for the micropump with electrode spacing of 40$\mu$m and channel height of 100$\mu$m at 200V was 40$\mu$m, where a maximum mass flow rate of 0.18g/min was predicted. Compared to that of planar electrodes, the 3D micropillar electrode geometry enhanced the overall performance of the EHD micropumps.