Speaker
Description
Cooling substrates based on microchannels provide highly efficient heat removal due to the direct proximity of the coolant to the heat sources. Within the DRD8 (Mechanics) programme, research and development activities focus on advancing silicon- and ceramic-based microchannel cooling technologies with two main objectives: improvements on electronics integration and cost reduction. Three main directions are pursued. First, CMOS-compatible microchannel fabrication and the development of active interposers are being investigated to enable simultaneous efficient cooling and electrical interconnection between detector systems and front-end electronics. Second, a low-cost silicon cooling-plate process is under development, employing hyperbaric bonding—a room-temperature bonding technique using a thin gold layer under hyperbaric conditions—alongside scalable interconnects for the realization of large-area heat exchangers. Third, low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) are being explored for channel fabrication, offering the possibility to integrate metallization and high-conductivity materials between stacked ceramic layers. The performance of these developments is evaluated along two optimization paths: minimization of material budget (≤ 0.2% X₀) for low power densities (10–100 mW/cm²), and minimal material budget solutions capable of sustaining high power dissipation (~2 W/cm²). The VELO Upgrade 2 at LHCb is the benchmark for the high-power scenario, with requirements including compatibility with evaporative CO₂ cooling at up to 186 bar, stable operation in vacuum, and non-uniform radiation doses up to order of 1017 MeV·neq/cm².
| Position | Postdoctoral Research Associate |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | The University of Manchester |
| Country | United Kingdom |