Ultra-compact ring-fin ionic wind pump for localized electronic thermal management

Localized thermal management of compact electronic components requires effective and space-saving cooling solutions. While ionic wind (electrohydrodynamic, EHD) pumps offer the advantages of solid-state, vibration-free active cooling, conventional designs are often restricted by large longitudinal dimensions (typically 35 to 100 mm) and limited cooling capacities. This paper proposes a novel ring-fin ionic wind pump that significantly enhances convective heat transfer while drastically minimizing the device footprint. The proposed geometry optimizes the plasma-induced airflow directly through the cooling fins, achieving an ultra-compact longitudinal profile of as small as 20 mm. Under a continuous heater input of 5 W and an ambient temperature of 25 °C, EHD activation at 13 kV reduced the measured heater-center temperature from 94.8 °C for the passive ring-fin heat sink to 70.1 °C. The corresponding center-temperature-based system thermal resistance decreased from 13.96 to 9.02 K/W, representing a reduction of 35.4%. The bare heater reached 101.0 °C under the same heater input and ambient conditions. Furthermore, when applied to a continuous 5 W heat source, the ring-fin EHD pump effectively reduces the operating temperature from 101 °C to 70.1 °C. These results demonstrate the potential of the integrated ring-fin architecture for localized thermal management under space-constrained conditions.