Integrated Micro Gas Chromatographs with High-Flow Knudsen Pumps.

Environmental gas sensing typically requires both sensitivity and specificity; target vapor species must not only be detected and quantified, but also differentiated from interferents. This mission can be accomplished by micro gas chromatographs (μGCs), which allow preconcentration of samples and subsequent separation of complex vapor mixtures into individual constituents by their specific retention times. This thesis focuses on the system-level design, fabrication, and integration of μGCs, with the ultimate goal of fully microfabricated systems that can be easily manufactured and distributed to end-users. This thesis also explores the optimization of a micro gas pump – a critical μGC component, and generally recognized as a challenge for microsystems. Three generations of integrated µGC systems have been designed, fabricated, and evaluated. The iGC1 system demonstrates the feasibility of a low-cost three-mask fabrication approach for a µGC including a Knudsen pump, a preconcentrator, a separation column and a microdischarge-based detector, which are integrated in a 4-cc stack. The iGC2 system demonstrates a valveless µGC architecture, in which a bi-directional Knudsen pump provides reversible gas flow for (multi-stage) preconcentrators, which is essential for quantitative analysis. The iGC3 system replaces the microdischarge-based detectors in iGC1 and iGC2 with complementary capacitive detectors, facilitating a purely electronic interface for the fluidics. Additionally, it is compatible with the use of room air as the carrier gas. The quantitative analysis of 19 chemicals with concentration levels of well below 100 ppb is demonstrated, showing the promise of automated, continuous monitoring of indoor air pollutants. The pumps used in the iGCx systems are Knudsen pumps that use thermal transpiration provided by nanoporous media and have no moving parts. This thesis also describes an exploratory effort in which lithographically fabricated channels in silicon substrates provide the thermal transpiration. The Si-micromachined Knudsen pumps demonstrate >200 sccm flow rate. To increase the output pressure head, these pumps are arrayed in series, using both a stacked configuration and a planar one. The results show that the pressure and flow characteristics can be tailored over a wide performance range, extending the possible applications beyond µGC systems.PhDElectrical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113581/1/yutaoqin_1.pd

Surface Structure Enhanced Microchannel Flow Boiling

We investigated the role of surface microstructures in two-phase microchannels on suppressing flow instabilities and enhancing heat transfer. We designed and fabricated microchannels with well-defined silicon micropillar arrays on the bottom heated microchannel wall to promote capillary flow for thin film evaporation while facilitating nucleation only from the sidewalls. Our experimental results show significantly reduced temperature and pressure drop fluctuation especially at high heat fluxes. A critical heat flux (CHF) of 969 W/cm2 was achieved with a structured surface, a 57% enhancement compared to a smooth surface. We explain the experimental trends for the CHF enhancement with a liquid wicking model. The results suggest that capillary flow can be maximized to enhance heat transfer via optimizing the microstructure geometry for the development of high performance two-phase microchannel heat sinks.United States. Office of Naval Research (N00014-15-1-2483)Masdar Institute of Science & Technology - MIT Technology & Development Program (Cooperative agreement, Reference 02/MI/MI/CP/11/07633/GEN/G/00)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific ResearchBattelle Memorial InstituteSingapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART

Amélioration des performances d'un moteur thermique à fluide auto-oscillant par la caractérisation du cycle thermodynamique et du changement de phase

L'objectif de cette thèse est de mieux comprendre les principes de fonctionnement d'un moteur thermique fluidique auto-oscillant (SOFHE) récemment découvert, en caractérisant le cycle thermodynamique (diagramme P-V) et le changement de phase (évaporation-condensation). Le SOFHE est proposé pour la récolte d'énergie thermique, couplé à un transducteur électromécanique, pour alimenter des capteurs sans fil utilisés dans l'Internet des objets (IoT). Le SOFHE est une bulle de vapeur piégée par un bouchon liquide (agissant comme un piston) dans un tube de petit diamètre. Cette bulle de vapeur-bouchon liquide est mise en oscillation par une évaporation-condensation cyclique d'une film liquide mince formée par une fibre de mèche. La première démonstration expérimentale du SOFHE a montré une faible puissance électrique de 1 µW. Cependant, on ne savait toujours pas comment le cycle thermodynamique inconnu de la SOFHE se comporte sous une charge et quelle densité de puissance mécanique la SOFHE peut générer. Pour répondre à cette question, le cycle thermodynamique et la densité de puissance de la SOFHE sont caractérisés expérimentalement pour la première fois sous une charge mécanique variable. La principale contribution de cette caractérisation est de fournir une base de référence pour l'adaptation de l'impédance qui est cruciale pour la conception d'une charge compatible pour la SOFHE. Il est également démontré que la densité de puissance mécanique de la SOFHE est de l'ordre de 0.5 milliwatts/cm3, ce qui en fait une solution prometteuse pour l'alimentation d'une gamme de capteurs sans fil dont la puissance requise est de l'ordre de 10s microwatt. Nous avons également étudié l'effet de la température de fonctionnement de la source de chaleur et de deux paramètres de conception, notamment la longueur de la fibre de mèche et la longueur du bouchon liquide, sur la puissance de la SOFHE. L'augmentation significative de la puissance en augmentant la longueur de la fibre a été la force motrice de la deuxième phase de notre étude dans laquelle nous avons caractérisé le profil de changement de phase complexe et inconnu (évaporation-condensation) de la SOFHE. Un nouveau dispositif a été conçu pour visualiser la variation du film mince autour de la fibre lorsque nous avons joué sur sa longueur à l'intérieur de la zone de vapeur. Les observations ont prouvé notre hypothèse de la formation de coins capillaires entre la fibre et la paroi interne du tube qui pompent le liquide du liquide vers la zone de vapeur. Cela conduit à la formation d'un film mince avec une très faible résistance thermique qui alimente l'évaporation. Le taux de variation de la masse de vapeur, appelé taux de changement de phase, est également mesuré. Il est démontré que pour maximiser l'amplitude de l'oscillation et, par conséquent, la puissance du SOFHE, l'amplitude du taux de changement de phase doit augmenter et être complètement déphasée par rapport à la position. Un nombre sans dimension est également proposé pour évaluer l'efficacité du profil du taux de changement de phase. Enfin, pour mieux contrôler le changement de phase, une nouvelle conception de la SOFHE est proposée et démontrée dans laquelle nous pouvons intégrer des structures de mèche sur mesure pour imiter l'effet de la fibre insérée. Le dispositif est un microcanal à section carrée avec des angles aigus et un chemin capillaire gravé sur la paroi inférieure qui est fabriqué par un procédé standard de microfabrication. Il est démontré que l'amplitude et, par conséquent, la puissance de la SOFHE augmente (multiplication par cinq de 30 à 150 µw/ cm3) avec l'ajout d'un chemin capillaire. Cela ouvre une nouvelle voie vers l'ingénierie du changement de phase de la SOFHE en concevant différentes structures de mèche pour améliorer les performances de la SOFHE.Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to better understand the working principles of a recently discovered self-oscillating fluidic heat engine (SOFHE) by characterizing the thermodynamic cycle (P-V diagram) and phase change (evaporation-condensation). The SOFHE is proposed for thermal energy harvesting, coupled with an electromechanical transducer, for powering wireless sensors used in the Internet of Things (IoT). The SOFHE is a vapor bubble trapped by a liquid plug (acting as a piston) in a small diameter tube. This vapor bubble-liquid plug is set in oscillations by a cyclic evaporation-condensation of a thin liquid film formed by a wicking fiber. The first experimental demonstration of the SOFHE showed a low electrical power of 1 μW. However, it is still unclear how the unknown thermodynamic cycle of the SOFHE behaves under a load and how much mechanical power density the SOFHE can generate. To address this question, the thermodynamic cycle and power density of the SOFHE are experimentally characterized for the first time under a varying mechanical load. The main contribution of this characterization is to provide a baseline for impedance matching that is crucial for designing a compatible load for the SOFHE. It is also shown that the mechanical power density of the SOFHE is in the range of milliwatts/cm3 (maximum 0.5 mW/cm3) which makes it a promising solution to power a range of wireless sensors with a power requirement of tens of microwatt. We also studied the effect of the operating heat source temperature and two design parameters, including the length of the wicking fiber and the length of the liquid plug on the power of SOFHE. The significant increase of the power by increasing the fiber length was the driving force behind the second phase of our study in which we characterized the complex and unknown phase change profile (evaporation-condensation) of the SOFHE. A new setup was designed to visualize the variation of the thin film around the fiber as we played with its length inside the vapor zone. The observations proved our hypothesis of forming capillary corners between the fiber and the inner wall of the tube that pumps liquid from the liquid plug toward the vapor zone. This leads to the formation of a thin film with a very small thermal resistance that feeds evaporation. The rate of change of mass of vapor, the so-called phase change rate, is also measured. It is shown that to maximize the amplitude of the oscillation and consequently the power of the SOFHE, the amplitude of the phase change rate should increase and be completely out of phase with the position. A dimensionless number is also proposed to evaluate the effectiveness of the phase change rate profile. Finally, to better control the phase change, a new design of the SOFHE is proposed in which we can integrate tailored wicking structures to mimic the effect of the inserted fiber. The device is a square cross-section microchannel with sharp corners as well as an etched capillary path on the bottom wall that is fabricated by a standard microfabrication process. It is shown that the amplitude and consequently the power of SOFHE increase (a fivefold increase from 30 to 150 μw/ cm3) as we add a capillary path. This opens a new path towards engineering the phase change of the SOFHE by designing different wicking structures to improve its performance

Lab-on-a-chip Thermoelectric and Solid-phase Immunodetection of Biochemical Analytes and Extracellular Vesicles: Experimental and Computational Analysis

Microfluidics is the technology of controlling and manipulating fluids at the microscale. Microfluidic platforms provide precise fluidic control coupled with low sample volume and an increase in the speed of biochemical reactions. Lab-on-a-chip platforms are used for detection and quantification of biochemical analytes, capture, and characterization of various proteins, sensitive analysis of cytokines, and isolation and detection of extracellular vesicles (EVs). This study focuses on the development of microfluidic and solid-phase capture pin platforms for the detection of cytokines, extracellular vesicles, and cell co-culture. The fabrication processes of the devices, experimental workflows, numerical analysis to identify optimal design parameters, and reproducibility studies have been discussed. Layer-by-layer assembly of polyelectrolytes has been developed to functionalize glass and stainless-steel substrates with biotin for the immobilization of streptavidinconjugated antibodies for selective capture of cytokines or EVs. Microstructure characterization techniques (SEM, EDX, and fluorescence microscopy) have been implemented to assess the efficiency of substrate functionalization. A detailed overview of current methods for purification and analysis of EVs is discussed as well. Additionally, the dissertation demonstrates the feasibility of a calorimetric microfluidic immunosensor with an integrated antimony-bismuth (Sb/Bi) thermopile sensor for the detection of cytokines with picomolar sensitivity. The developed platform can be used for the universal detection of both exothermic or endothermic reactions. A three-dimensional numerical model was developed to define the critical design parameters that enhance the sensitivity of the platform. Mathematical analyses identified the optimal combinations of substrate material and dimensions that will maximize the heat transfer to the sensor. Lab-on-a-chip cell co-culture platform with integrated pneumatic valve was designed, numerically characterized, and fabricated. This device enables the reversible separation of two cell culture chambers and serves as a tool for the effective analysis of cell-to-cell communication. Intercellular communication is mediated by extracellular vesicles. A protocol for the functionalization of stainless-steel probe with exosomespecific CD63 antibody was developed. The efficiency of the layer-by-layer deposition of polyelectrolytes and the effectiveness of biotin and streptavidin covalent boding were characterized using fluorescent and scanning electron microscopy

Experimental Study on Local Subcooled Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in a Vertical Mini-Gap Channel

An experimental study of subcooled flow boiling in a high-aspect-ratio, one-sided heating rectangular mini-gap channel was conducted using deionized water. The local heat transfer coefficient, onset of nucleate boiling, and flow pattern of subcooled boiling were investigated. The influence of heat flux and mass flux were studied with the aid of a high-speed camera. The results show that the flow pattern was mainly isolated bubbly flow when the narrow microchannel was placed vertically. The bubbles generated at lower mass fluxes were larger and did not easily depart, forming elongated bubbly flow and flowing upstream. The thin film evaporation mechanism dominated the entire test section due to the elongated bubbles and transient local dryout as well as rewet. The local heat transfer coefficient near the exit of the test section was larger

A Hierarchical Manifold Microchannel Heat Sink Array for High-Heat-Flux Two-Phase Cooling of Electronics

High-heat-flux removal is necessary for next-generation microelectronic systems to operate more reliably and efficiently. Extremely high heat removal rates are achieved in this work using a hierarchical manifold microchannel heat sink array. The microchannels are imbedded directly into the heated substrate to reduce the parasitic thermal resistances due to contact and conduction resistances. Discretizing the chip footprint area into multiple smaller heat sink elements with high-aspect-ratio microchannels ensures shortened effective fluid flow lengths. Phase change of high fluid mass fluxes can thus be accommodated in micron-scale channels while keeping pressure drops low compared to traditional, microchannel heat sinks. A thermal test vehicle, with all flow distribution components heterogeneously integrated, is fabricated to demonstrate this enhanced thermal and hydraulic performance. The 5 mm x 5 mm silicon chip area, with resistive heaters and local temperature sensors fabricated directly on the opposite face, is cooled by a 3 x 3 array of microchannel heat sinks that are fed with coolant using a hierarchical manifold distributor. Using the engineered dielectric liquid HFE-7100 as the working fluid, experimental results are presented for channel mass fluxes of 1300, 2100, and 2900 kg/m2 s and channel cross sections with nominal widths of 15 micrometers and nominal depths of 35 micrometers, 150 micrometers, and 300 micrometers. Maximum heat flux dissipation is shown to increase with mass flux and channel depth and the heat sink with 15 micrometers x 300 micrometers channels is shown to dissipate base heat fluxes up to 910 W/cm2 at pressure drops of less than 162 kPa and chip temperature rise under 47 degrees C relative to the fluid inlet temperature

MEMS-based thermal management of high heat flux devices edifice: Embedded droplet impingement for integrated cooling of electronics

Increases in microprocessor power dissipation coupled with reductions in feature sizes due to manufacturing process improvements have resulted in continuously increasing heat fluxes. The ever increasing chip-level heat flux has necessitated the development of thermal management devices based on spray and evaporative cooling. This lecture presents a comprehensive review of liquid and evaporative cooling research applied to thermal management of electronics. It also outlines the challenges to practical implementation and future research needs. This presentation also describes the development of EDIFICE: Embedded Droplet Impingement For Integrated Cooling of Electronics. The EDIFICE project seeks to develop an integrated droplet impingement cooling device for removing chip heat fluxes over 100 W/cm2, employing latent heat of vaporization of dielectric fluids. Micro-manufacturing and MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) will be discussed as enabling technologies for innovative cooling schemes recently proposed. Micro-spray nozzles are fabricated to produce 50-100 micron droplets coupled with surface texturing on the backside of the chip to promote droplet spreading and evaporation. A novel feature to enable adaptive on-demand cooling is MEMS sensing (on-chip temperature, remote IR temperature and ultrasonic dielectric film thickness) and MEMS actuation. EDIFICE is integrated within the electronics package and fabricated using advanced micro-manufacturing technologies (e.g., Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) and CMOS CMU-MEMS). The development of EDIFICE involves modeling, CFD simulations, and physical experimentation on test beds. This lecture will then examine jet impingement cooling of EDIFICE with a dielectric coolant and the influence of fluid properties, micro spray characteristics, and surface evaporation. The development of micro nozzles, micro-structured surface texturing, and system integration of the evaporator will also be discussed

Capillary-Limited Evaporation From Well-Defined Microstructured Surfaces

Thermal management is increasingly becoming a bottleneck for a variety of high power density applications such as integrated circuits, solar cells, microprocessors, and energy conversion devices. The performance and reliability of these devices are usually limited by the rate at which heat can be removed from the device footprint, which averages well above 100 W/cm[superscript 2] (locally this heat flux can exceed 1000 W/cm[superscript 2]). State-of-the-art air cooling strategies which utilize the sensible heat are insufficient at these large heat fluxes. As a result, novel thermal management solutions such as via thin-film evaporation that utilize the latent heat of vaporization of a fluid are needed. The high latent heat of vaporization associated with typical liquidvapor phase change phenomena allows significant heat transfer with small temperature rise. In this work, we demonstrate a promising thermal management approach where square arrays of cylindrical micropillar arrays are used for thin-film evaporation. The microstructures control the liquid film thickness and the associated thermal resistance in addition to maintaining a continuous liquid supply via the capillary pumping mechanism. When the capillary-induced liquid supply mechanism cannot deliver sufficient liquid for phase change heat transfer, the critical heat flux is reached and dryout occurs. This capillary limitation on thin-film evaporation was experimentally investigated by fabricating well-defined silicon micropillar arrays using standard contact photolithography and deep reactive ion etching. A thin film resistive heater and thermal sensors were integrated on the back side of the test sample using e-beam evaporation and acetone lift-off. The experiments were carried out in a controlled environmental chamber maintained at the water saturation pressure of ≈3.5 kPa and ≈25 °C. We demonstrated significantly higher heat dissipation capability in excess of 100 W/cm[superscript 2]. These preliminary results suggest the potential of thin-film evaporation from microstructured surfaces for advanced thermal management applications.United States. Office of Naval ResearchNational Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship ProgramBattell

Designing Thermal Modulators for Portable GC x GC Systems.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have the advantage of scale and can be manufactured in bulk. One of the active areas of MEMS research is the development of micro-scale comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (μGC×μGC). Our previous work demonstrated the development of the first microscale thermal modulator(µTM) for use in GC×GC. However, our demonstration was limited to very simple mixtures. Rapid, GC×GC separations by use of a mid-point µTM are demonstrated and the effects of various µTM design and operating parameters on performance are characterized here. A 9 compound structured chromatogram and a 21-component separation was achieved in < 3 min. Next we demonstrate GC × GC with all microfabricated components. The first dimension consists of two series coupled μcolumn chips with etched channels, with a PDMS stationary phase. The second dimension consists of a μcolumn chip with either a trigonal tricationic room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) or a commercial poly(trifluoropropylmethyl siloxane) (OV-215) stationary phase. Conventional injection methods and flame ionization detection were used. Current conventional thermal modulators can achieve FWHH of modulated peaks of ~ 10 ms, which is necessary to obtain optimum peak capacity in GC×GC by using cryogenic consumables or high amounts of power. However, since we are limited in the amount of cooling power we can use, we need to understand the fundamental physics governing the thermal modulation, and optimize our modulators. Hence we developed a theoretical model of single-stage TM with the aim to elucidate factors leading to improvements in GC×GC analyses. Model predictions were compared with experimental data obtained using our μTM operating as a single-stage TM and excellent match is obtained. To make a more realistic model, we demonstrated the physics behind the operation of a two-stage modulator. We show that parameters such as the time constant of modulation can be used to reduce the FWHH, breakthrough and hence improve the peak capacity of the GC×GC significantly. Going forward, this theory can be used to optimize the performance of the thermal modulator and coupled with thermal simulations to design the next generation of thermal modulators.PhDMechanical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116744/1/dibya_1.pd