Review of Literature and a Preliminary Experimental Investigation on Start-up Instabilities in an R-11 Thermosiphon Loop with Applications in Microelectronic Chip Cooling

A literature review on the recent applications and developments of thermosiphon loop is conducted. In particular, systems suitable for cooling of microelectronic chips are reviewed in greater detail. The advantages of using a thermosiphon loop in microelectronic applications are discussed. The instability and temperature overshoot at the start-up have been identified as major problems which require further investigation. An experimental thermosiphon loop facility is built for preliminary investigations. Qualitative results on instability and temperature overshoot are obtained by varying the time interval between shutdown and next start-up. For the conditions of the tests conducted, aging did not affect the results, but the liquid subcooling and the dissolved gases are suspected to play an important role in the start-up behavior.