An experimental investigation of vapor deposited micro heat pipe arrays was conducted using arrays of 34 and 66 micro heat pipes occupying 0.75 and 1.45 percent of the cross-sectional area, respectively. The performance of wafers containing the arrays was compared with that of a plain silicon wafer. All of the wafers had 8 × 8 mm thermofoil heaters located on the bottom surface to simulate the active devices in an actual application. The temperature distributions across the wafers were obtained using a Hughes Probeye TVS Infrared Thermal Imaging System and a standard VHS video recorder. For wafers containing arrays of 34 vapor deposited micro heat pipes, the steady-state experimental data indicated a reduction in the maximum surface temperature and temperature gradients of 24.4 and 27.4 percent, respectively, coupled with an improvement in the effective thermal conductivity of 41.7 percent. For wafers containing arrays of 66 vapor deposited micro heat pipes, the corresponding reductions in the surface temperature and temperature gradients were 29.0 and 41.7 percent, respectively, and the effective thermal conductivity increased 47.1 percent, for input heat fluxes of 4.70 W/cm2. The experimental results were compared with the results of a previously developed numerical model, which was shown to predict the temperature distribution with a high degree of accuracy, for wafers both with and without the heat pipe arrays.
