<title>Industrial applications for LIGA-fabricated micro heat exchangers</title>

Abstract

One of the well-known benefits of micro scale is enhanced heat transfer. This fact provides the motivation for fabricating a variety of micro heat exchangers using derivatives of the LIGA micromachining process. These heat exchangers can be made of polymers, nickel (electroplated or electroless), or ceramics (Si<SUB>3</SUB>N<SUB>4</SUB> and alumina are presently being investigated). These heat exchangers are envisioned for applications such as gas turbine blades, mechanical seals and/or bearings, boilers, condensers, radiators, evaporators, electronic component cooling, and catalytic converters. In this paper, methods to fabricate an array of heat exchangers for different applications are described. In addition, simple analytic models that illustrate the motivation for fabricating micro cross flow heat exchanges are shown to compare favorably with experimental heat transfer results.