Research Projects

The global telecom industry is undergoing a major shift with the rise of 5G and the anticipated rollout of 6G, offering data rates up to 1 Tbps, real-time AI integration, and ultra-low latency. India, under its Bharat 6G Vision, aims to achieve 330 million 5G users by 2030, creating a strong national demand for efficient thermal management in compact, high-power electronic systems. The integration of components such as RF amplifiers, mm Wave transceivers, massive MIMO arrays, and edge computing units into dense hardware configurations has led to severe thermal challenges, with localized heat fluxes reaching 300–500 W/cm² well beyond the capacity of conventional cooling methods. Effective, scalable, and high-performance thermal solutions are therefore crucial for the reliable deployment of 5G and 6G technologies. Traditional methods such as air cooling even when involved with fans and heat sinks can cater to a maximum of 100 W/cm² due to low thermal conductivity. Single-phase liquid cooling, inclusive of high performing micro channels can go up to a maximum of 250 W/cm². Further reducing the size may enhance the heat fluxes but the exponentially increasing pumping power due to high pressure drop restricts in further reducing the sizes. Two phase based cooling systems such as heat pipes, vapour chambers found to be working efficiently up to 300 W/ cm² and struggles beyond it due to wick limitations and surface area constraints. Recent research on manifold micro-channel systems utilizing nucleate or convective boiling has demonstrated the potential to handle heat fluxes up to 700 W/cm² under laboratory conditions, with relatively lower pressure drops. However, these systems suffer from complex two-phase flow design challenges, including flow instabilities, dry-out management, and control requirements, limiting their scalability and commercial adoption. To address these challenges, the present proposal aims to develop a hybrid mini-channel cooling system that integrates embedded two-phase structures such as 1) thermo-siphon loops in the channel walls 2) Vapor chambers/ultra-thin flat heat pipes as channel walls, replacing conventional solid metal walls. This hybrid approach is designed to synergistically combine the high thermal conductivity and phase-change efficiency of two-phase devices with the compact, high-surface-area benefits of liquid-cooled mini-channels. By leveraging the latent heat transport capabilities of the embedded two-phase interfaces, this system is expected to 1) achieve enhanced thermal performance without excessive pumping requirements 2) Reduce temperature gradients across the cooling domain 3) Offer a low-complexity, scalable, and cost-efficient solution tailored to 5G/6G electronic packaging. This innovation holds the potential to redefine the thermal management landscape for high-power-density electronics and accelerate the deployment of robust, reliable 5G/6G communication infrastructure.