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Thermal Science and Engineering Progress

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Heat transfer enhancement of conventional aluminum heat sinks with an

innovative, cost-effective, and simple chemical roughening method
Mohammad Reza Attar a, Majid Mohammadi b, Amin Taheri b, Saman Hosseinpour c,
Mohammad Passandideh-Fard b, Mohsen Haddad Sabzevar a, Ali Davoodi a, *, 1
a
Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
c
Institute of Particle Technology (LFG), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität-Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Cauerstraße 4, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Increased temperature of electronic devices during their performance results in the decline of their performance
Cooling efficiency and reduces their lifetime due to the increased thermal damage, a problem which is very substantial in minia­
Chemical roughening turized electronic components. Here, we present an innovative, cost-efficient, simple, and environmentally
Heat sink
benign chemical method for creating micro/nano roughened structure on the conventional aluminum heat sinks
Thermal management
to increase their cooling capability. The surface structures of the roughened heat sinks were examined using
Thermal resistance
scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The performance of conventional and micro/nano
roughened aluminum heat sinks was analyzed for thermal management of a printed circuit board (PCB) pro­
ducing heat fluxes equivalent to those of a Core i7-1068NG7 processor. At forced air convection condition and
under heat fluxes of 8000, 10,000 and 12,000 W/m2, the temperature of PCBs cooled with roughened heat sinks
were found to be lower than those cooled with the conventional heat sinks by impressive values of 9.2 ◦ C,
11.0 ◦ C, and 12.8 ◦ C, respectively. The thermal resistance of the novel heat sink decreased by 38.01%, 39.14%,
and 39.96%, respectively, compared to that of the conventional heat sink. In free convection, employing the
roughened heat sink improved the PCB cooling effectiveness by roughly 14% at heat fluxes of 8000 W/m2 at
cutoff temperature. The proposed simple method in this study opens up the possibility of reducing the size (or
mass) of aluminum heat sinks or employing a heat sink of a certain size for the thermal management of a system
with higher heat flux.

1. Introduction
According to the atlas of economic complexity [1], the current gross
export of the USA in the area of electronics alone exceeds 170 billion US
$. Apart from the direct investment costs of the electronic devices, their
power consumption for operation and thermal management adds to the
total costs of the electronics. Therefore, it is not a big surprise that the
thermal management of electronics, for maintaining them in ideal
operating conditions, with a market share of 11 billion US$ has attracted
huge attention [2,3]. Energy saving of cooling systems not only reduces
the costs but also contributes to the reduction of carbon emission from
electronic devices in the environment [4]. For instance, 1.2 TWh energy
consumption by personal computer (PC) units can be significantly
reduced by using more efficient cooling systems [5–7]. Moreover,
continuing miniaturization (i.e size and weight reduction) and an in­
crease in output power density of electronic devices have led to
increased demand for more efficient thermal management [8,9]. Proper
thermal management of electronics also affects their lifetime and per­
formance which are effectively reliant on the operating temperature of
electronic devices [10,11]. Based on the above details, thermal man­
agement of electronic components is of priority concern [12].
Several innovative mechanical designs and new fabrication strate­
gies, nowadays, particularly by 3D printing are used to improve the
cooling performance of electronic devices, but less attention has been
made on engineering intrinsic surface properties of cooling devices
using industrially scalable technologies [13–15]. With respect to the
materials and methods which are utilized for the thermal management
of electronic devices, cooling systems can be categorized into different

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: a.davodi@um.ac.ir, adavoodi@seas.harvard.edu (A. Davoodi).
1
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsep.2020.100742
Received 31 May 2020; Received in revised form 23 September 2020; Accepted 28 September 2020
Available online 5 October 2020
2451-9049/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.R. Attar et al.
types such as heat pipes [16,17], liquid-based cooling systems
[11,18,19], spray cooling [20,21], phase changing materials [22,23],
thermoelectric cooling [24], and air-based cooling [25–27]. These
cooling techniques are broadly classified into passive and active [26].
The passive cooling techniques operate without any external source for
heat removal and are, therefore, rather inefficient for the thermal
management of electrical components with a high output heat flux. In
contrast, the active cooling techniques, which benefit from an external
thermoelectric cooling compartment, can be easily adopted for systems
with high heat flux. Nevertheless, often the thermoelectric coolers suffer
from relatively low efficiency and high capital cost. When liquid-based
cooling modules are used as the external cooling compartment, any
leakage in the module may lead to an irreversible damage to chips and
electronic devices. In addition, liquid coolants, either aqueous or
nonaqueous, usually are not utilized as they adds more weight to the
system [28] and often exhibit freezing problems in low-temperature
conditions [29]. Therefore, cooling by air-forced circulation deems a
viable option for active cooling systems.
Although air has low thermal properties (i.e. heat capacity and
thermal conductivity), it should not be overlooked as a viable coolant,
because of its accessibility, ease of control for pressure drop, and low
leakage threats [25]. In order to overcome the low thermal properties of
air and for enhancement of heat transfer efficiency of the air-cooled
systems several methods have been offered, including the application
of plain and pin fins, metal foams, porous media, and dimpled and
roughened surfaces [30]. The main disadvantage of porous media and
metal foams originates from their low mechanical resistance. Addi­
tionally, creating pin, fins, and dimples on porous surfaces requires
utilization of costly equipment including but not limited to the computer
numerical control (CNC) machining. The mentioned methods are often
not appropriate for scale up in large-scale industrial production.
Therefore, developing simple and low-cost strategies for improving the
thermal properties of the air-cooled systems is a necessity.
It is proven that surface roughening profoundly enhances the heat
transfer rate in various applications including in solar air heaters
[31,32], boilers [33,34], electronic devices [35], and heat exchangers
[36]. The improved heat dissipation in roughened heat sinks has been
experimentally and numerically studied before. For example, Ceylan
et al. [37] proposed a numerical correlation between the surface relative
roughness and the convective heat transfer coefficient in the pipelines,
based on the limited number of available experimental data. Chakroun
et al. [38] found that the surface roughness has a strong effect on the
flow characteristics of an air jet impinged on a rough surface. They
showed that the surface roughness affects the mean velocity as well as
the turbulence intensity of the flow. Ventola et al. [30] experimentally
investigated, for the first time, the artificial roughness manufacturing by
direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) to augment convective heat transfer
in flat and finned heat sinks. They observed that on rough flat and rough
fin surfaces (Ra = 43 µm) the average convective heat transfer was
enhanced by 63% and 35% as compared to smooth surfaces (Ra≈1 µm),
respectively. Oguntala et al. [39] numerically assessed the effects of
cylindrical micro-fins with artificial roughness on heat transfer
improvement for the thermal management of microprocessors. Their
results revealed that the surface roughness as well as the geometric ratio
of the micro fins enhance the thermal performance and cooling effi­
ciency of the device compared to smooth fins. The effect of micro-
roughness shapes of concentric, cubic, and cylindrical produced by ad­
ditive manufacturing on heat transfer and fin effectiveness was later
assessed both numerically and experimentally by Singh et al. [40]. They
found that the concentric shaped roughness elements have a higher heat
transfer improvement and fin effectiveness as compared to their cylin­
drical and cubic roughened shapes counterparts. Overall, all these
roughened structures, which were made via additive manufacturing,
exhibited substantial improved heat transfer efficiency compared to a
smooth target in jet impingement cooling systems.
Bostanci et al. [41] utilized plasma spraying and particle blasting
2
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100742
techniques to fabricate microscale structure on surface for heat transfer
improvement. Based on their experimental results, at a subjected heat
flux of 500 W/cm2, in comparison to the conventional smooth surface,
the modified microscale surface exhibited improved heat transfer co­
efficients up to 76%. The performance of micro-, nano-, and micro/
nano-structured surfaces on heat transfer characteristics of copper sur­
faces was studied by Sadaghiani et al. [35]. In their study, the me­
chanical sanding method was utilized for surface roughening. In
comparison to the smooth reference sample, the authors found the
maximum heat transfer improvement of about 16%, 25%, and 36%, at a
mass flux of 50 kg/m2 and heat flux of 17 W/cm2 for micro-, nano-, and
micro/nano-structured surfaces, respectively.
It is thus clear that the surface roughening results in an improved
heat transfer efficiency in heat sinks, which in turn, leads to better
thermal management of electronic devices. Nonetheless, surface struc­
turing and fabrication of roughened surfaces using additive
manufacturing are tedious, expensive, and require specialized equip­
ment. Chemical etching is another versatile method for roughening the
surface of metals. Nevertheless, despite the application of chemical
etching as a way for the fabrication of roughened surfaces, such strate­
gies are often implemented for changing the physicochemical properties
of the surface such as its hydrophobicity, water or ice repellency, as well
as the paint adhesion to a limited extent. Thus, in this study, we propose
a simple and innovative chemical etching method for fabrication of a
micro/nano roughened structures on a conventional aluminum heat sink
for the purpose of enhancing its heat transfer efficiency. To the best of
our knowledge, such chemically induced surface roughening method
has not yet been utilized for improving the heat transfer efficiency of a
surface. Furthermore, in most of the studies in which chemical etching
has been implemented for surface roughening (for other purposes), often
a combination of multiple etchants in a relatively complex protocol is
used which involves the application of sonication bath and multiple
washing steps [42–44]. In contrast, in this study, only one type of
chemical (i.e. HCl) is used for surface roughening without further
application of ultrasonic treatment (ethanol is also used to clean the
surface from oil and grease, a step which can be omitted for as received
heat sinks). This simplification allows for upscaling the process and
enables the utilization of our proposed methodology in the industrial
applications. In many studies of this kind, extremely hard to handle
chemicals (such as HF) are used for surface structuring. Apart from being
difficult to implement, these methods also leave behind negative envi­
ronmental impacts. Also, extra steps such as neutralization of the waste
are required for the safe collection of the solutions after application. In
our proposed method, however, less environmentally dangerous etchant
(i.e. HCl) is used and the waste treatment is extremely simplified. This is
an important aspect simplifying the industrialization of the proposed
method.
Since up to now, most of the experimental works in this field are
performed using expensive and complicated surface roughening meth­
odologies, the substantial enhancement in heat transfer efficiency of the
heat sinks using the simple/innovative proposed chemical method for
the particular application of cooling electronic devices is rather unique
in the field of thermal design and management.
In the following, the procedure for the preparation and character­
ization of roughened surfaces is discussed. The thermal properties of
roughened heat sinks are then compared with those of the conventional
systems under different conditions. The proposed method in this work
for surface roughening utilizes nontoxic chemical and can be easily used
in manufacturing scale-up. Additionally, currently available conven­
tional aluminum heat sinks at any size and geometry can be treated
using this method, which makes it industrially attractive.
M.R. Attar et al.
2. Experimental details
2.1. Roughening process
The simple and facile chemical etching treatment depicted in Fig. 1 is
utilized in accordance with our earlier publication [45] to develop
micro/nano-scale roughness on the surface of conventional heat sinks.
This method is utilized as a viable alternative to the more expensive and
demanding bottom-up fabrication approaches such as DMLS. As indi­
cated in Fig. 1, the conventional heat sink is initially washed in alcohol/
distilled water mixture and dried at room temperature to remove the
excess water/ethanol from the surface. In the etching step, the
aluminum heat sink is immersed in an aqueous solution of hydrochloric
acid (37 wt%) (1:1 vol ratio) at room temperature for 4 min, inducing
the surfaces roughness. The etching time was optimized to ensure the
formation of micro/nano-roughness on the surface of the conventional
sink, as will be discussed later. The sample is then washed and dried for
5 min in a flow of dry air. All steps of the presented method take just
about 20 min. As a result, the rapid process of application of non-toxic
chemical allows for upscaling this method for industrial use.
2.2. Surface characterization
Examination of the surface structure before and after the roughening
process is performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM, Zeiss,
LEO 1450VP, Voltage: 20 KV) equipped with the secondary electrons
detector (SE-SEM). For surface topography observation and quantifica­
tion of surface roughness, the atomic force microscopy (AFM, Ara
Research) is used (Tip: Silicon, Al backside coating, Rtip = 8 nm). The
specific surface area of the conventional, as well as the micro/nano
roughened heat sinks, is determined using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller
(BET) surface analysis method (Quantachrome NovaWin). A high-
speed camera (960 frames per second) is used to determine the wetta­
bility of the heat sink surface after roughening. The chemical composi­
tion of the conventional heat sink is determined using optical emission
Conventional heat sink Distilled water
Washing process
3 min
Distilled water
Drying process
min, 25°C
Micro/nano-roughened heat sink
Fig. 1. Details of the roughening process employed on heat sink.
3
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100742
spectrometer (OES, Foundry-Master Smart) as: Si 0.40%, Fe 0.32%, Cu
0.04%, Mn 0.02%, Mg 0.57%, Zn 0.05%, and Al balance (in wt%),
matching AA6063 (ASM standard).
2.3. Experimental setup
An experimental setup including two main sub-systems and mea­
surement equipment is developed to scrutinize and compare the heat
transfer performance of the conventional and roughened heat sinks for
the cooling of a PCB as the heat generating electronic component. In
Fig. 2a different units of the setup including, a conventional and two
roughened aluminum heat sinks, DC CPU fans, K-type thermocouples,
PCBs operating under similar conditions, and insulation layer can be
observed. The role and details of each component in the experimental
setup schematically shown in Fig. 2b are described as follows:
• A DC power source (30 V-5 A ATTEN) is connected to the PCB, which
regulates the open-circuit voltage and short circuit current to provide
a desired heat flux between 8000 to 12,000 W/m2.
• The conventional (or micro/nano roughened) aluminum heat sink is
used for the thermal management of the PCBs. The total number of
fins in each heat sink is 17 and the dimensions of each fin are: length
= 3.0 cm, width = 9.0 cm, thickness = 0.1 cm. The distance between
the two fins = 0.3 cm with total apparent interior surface of ~886.8
cm2. The mass of the conventional heat sink is 210 gr. After the
roughening process, due to the aluminum dissolution and metal
release, the mass of the heat sink is reduced to 195 gr. The rough­
ening process and surface heat sink characterization are discussed in
the previous sections, vide supra.
• The K-type thermocouples for measuring temperatures are placed
between the PCB and copper plate, at the center of cooling units. In
order to accurately determine the transient temperature-time
response of the PCB at constant input heat fluxes, thermocouples
are fixed 1.5 mm deep in the slot. For practical purposes, a cutoff
Alcohol
Drying process
min, 25°C
Etching
process
4 min
Hydrochloric
acid/water
Washing process
3 min
M.R. Attar et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100742

(a)

Surface SEM image Surface SEM image

(b)

9 cm 9 cm

3 cm 3 cm

Thermal paste Thermal paste

Copper plate Copper plate

PCB PCB

Conventional Micro/Nano roughened

heat sink heat sink

Fig. 2. a) A photograph of the experimental setup including the heat sinks and measurement equipment. Two heat sinks, conventional and roughened, with the same
apparent surface area (i.e 886.80 cm2) as well as one roughened heat sink with reduced surface area (i.e. 554.25 cm2) are depicted in this picture. b) Schematic
representation of different elements in the experimental setup.

temperature of 75 ◦ C is considered, to stop the measurements before Czech Republic) to experimentally determine the air velocity close to
the device failure. the heat sinks. The Reynolds number (Re) based on the velocity of the air
• A digital data-logger (Lutron TM-947SD) is utilized to record the and the geometry of the heat exchange unit was estimated to be 722,
PCBs and ambient temperatures simultaneously. The recorded tem­ which guarantees a laminar air flow close to the fins.
peratures are saved on an SD card every 10 s.
• Three similar DC CPU fans (PBT-GF30-FR, 12 V, and 0.12 A) are used
over the heat sink to provide forced air convection. The free con­ 2.4. Experimental uncertainty investigation
vection is assessed by switching off the DC CPU fan.
• To ensure a uniform heat flux distribution on the PCB, a thin copper A systematic uncertainty analysis is used to ensure the reliability of
plate (4.4 cm × 6 cm × 0.1 cm) is placed between the cooling unit the experiments. The uncertainty is assessed based on the accuracy of
and the PCB. the measuring equipment and repeatability of the experiments, in
• Two layers of thermal paste (high voltage silicon rubber, Hong-Fa accordance with the procedure previously described in literature [46].
Technology Co. Model Number: 7099) are used and spread uni­ In Eq. (1), for R as a function of n independent linear parameters (R =
formly to fill the air gaps between the PCB, heat sink, and copper R(ν1 , ν2 , ⋯, νn )), the uncertainty is given as:
plate. The thermal paste reduces the thermal resistance and increases √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( )2 ( )2 ( )2̅
the heat transfer rate between the PCB, copper plate, and heat sink ∂R ∂R ∂R
δR = δν1 + δν2 + ⋯ + δνn (1)
(Fig. 2b). Using thermal paste can also improve the contact of two ∂ν1 ∂ν2 ∂νn
surfaces. In this study, the thickness of each layer of thermal paste is
Herein, ∂Rand δνi are the uncertainty of function R and the uncer­
1.5 mm. Based on calculations, this thickness causes a maximum
tainty of parameter Vi, respectively. In addition, ∂ν
∂R
is the partial deriv­
thermal resistance of 0.0002 K/W; that is 0.01 ◦ C difference between i

each two sides. ative of R with respect to νi . The total uncertainty (Eq. (2)) can be
• An elastomeric insulation layer (K-FLEX®) with a thickness of 2 cm calculated using uncertainty of repetition (Eq. (3)) and uncertainty of
and a thermal conductivity of 0.0034 W.m− 1.K− 1 is used at the the equipment
bottom of the PCBs. Thus, the heat transfer only takes place between (Eq. (4)):
the PCBs and aluminum heat sinks. √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
∂v = (∂vrep )2 + (∂veqp )2 (2)
We utilized a hand held Mini Anemometer (UT363, from UNI-T,

4
M.R. Attar et al.
S performance in the presence of an external fan (i.e. forced air convec­
∂vrep = √̅̅̅ (3)
n tion) and in the absence of the external fan (i.e. free convection). For a
a the PCB temperature rises monotonically until the device temperature
∂veqp = √̅̅̅ (4)
3 reaches the cutoff temperature (after almost 370 sec. at ~75 ◦ C).
Herein, S is standard deviation [47],n is the number of the repeated
measured data, and a is half of the measuring equipment accuracy. The
uncertainties related to the measuring equipment are provided in
Table 1. For all considered cases in this study and based upon Table 1,
the calculated uncertainty is less than 3% which shows a high accuracy
of experimental data.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Surface properties
Fig. 3 displays the SEM images of as-received conventional and
roughened aluminum heat sink surfaces with different magnifications.
The surface of the conventional heat sink is rinsed prior to imaging to
remove the possible contaminations and dust from the surface. The
surface of the conventional heat sink (Fig. 3a and b) is relatively smooth
and some local pits are observed at its grain boundaries. As clearly
shown in Fig. 3c and d, the relatively smooth surface of the conventional
aluminum heat sink is decorated extensively with micro/nano scale
features after the roughing process. The AFM results in Fig. 3e clearly
exhibit the three dimensional (3D) structure of the surface features
(~200 nm size and only few nm in height) that are formed, thanks to
selective dissolution of aluminum at certain crystallographic directions
at the dislocation defects that are common in crystalline aluminum
[48,49]. The conventional aluminum substrate presented an average
roughness of 41.1 nm (Ra = 41.1 nm) whereas the roughened aluminum
substrate produced during etching process showed a notable increase of
the average roughness (Ra = 169.4 nm) due to the formation of disso­
lution patterns. Similar dissolution patterns have also been observed on
monocrystalline aluminum surfaces [50]. In Fig. 4, the contact angle
evolution of 10 μl distilled water droplet after impact on the roughened
aluminum surface is presented. As shown in this figure, the surface of the
roughened aluminum sample is superhydrophilic (i.e. water droplet
contact angle ~0◦ ). The water droplet wets the surface completely
within 20 ms after the impact and probably penetrates the micro/nano
scale features of the roughened surface. As comparison, the contact
angle of the water droplet on a conventional aluminum heat sink was
~87◦
3.2. Thermal assessments
To investigate the effectiveness of the presented surface roughening
method in improving the cooling capacities of conventional heat sinks,
the thermal properties of conventional and roughened heat sinks are
compared for the thermal management of PCB at heat fluxes equivalent
to those of a Core i7-1068NG7 processor. The initial experiments with a
heat flux of 8000 W/m2 are carried out to compare the heat sinks
Table 1
Accuracy and uncertainty of equipment.
Equipment Measurement section Equipment
uncertainty
Thermocouple PCB temperature (conventional heat 0.144 ◦ C
sink)
Thermocouple PCB temperature (roughened heat 0.144 ◦ C
sink)
Thermocouple Ambient temperature 0.144 ◦ C
Digital multimeter (VC9805, Power source voltage 0.144 V
China)
Digital multimeter (VC9805, Power source current 0.231 A
China)
5
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100742
conventional heat sink, as shown in Fig. 5, when no external fan is used,
However, when a fan is used to force the air convection, the system
reaches a steady-state temperature of 49.8 ◦ C within the first 300 sec.
and the device maintains its function throughout the whole measure­
ment. For a roughened heat sink, the steady-state temperature of 40.6 ◦ C
is reached also after 300 sec. when an external fan is used. In the case of
free convection, the cutoff temperature is reached after 520 sec. The
reduction of steady-state temperature or prolongation of the time to
reach the cutoff temperature in free convection after roughening the
heat sink surface will be discussed in detail in the following (vide infra).
3.2.1. Forced air convection
3.2.1.1. Effect of surface roughness on cooling performance of aluminum
heat sinks under different heat fluxes. We first consider the forced air
convection cases and compare the steady-state temperatures of systems
when the conventional and roughened heat sinks operate under
different heat fluxes. Fig. 6a-c depict the transient time-temperature
response of conventional and roughened heat sinks under heat flux of
8000, 10,000, and 12,000 W/m2, respectively. As is observed in these
curves, in all cases roughening the heat sink surfaces results in a sub­
stantial decrease in the temperature of the system, from the beginning to
the end. Similar to the trend that was discussed earlier for the heat flux
of 8000 W/m2, the steady-state temperatures in a conventional heat sink
at the heat flux of 10,000 and 12,000 W/m2 reach 53.7 ◦ C and 58.6 ◦ C,
respectively, whereas the corresponding steady-state temperatures in
the roughened heat sink are 42.7 ◦ C and 45.8 ◦ C, respectively. By
creating roughness on the surface of the heat sink, the effective heat
transfer surface increases and according to Newton’s law of cooling, the
heat output will be higher. In addition, the main mechanism of the
reduction of the system’s temperature with forced air convection when
the surface is roughened is the formation of additional air vortices near
the nano and micron size features in the roughed sink surface. As can be
seen, the absolute effect of surface roughness in reducing the PCB
temperature rise (as compared with the ambient temperature, ΔT1 −
ΔT2) is dependent on the system’s heat flux and increases when higher
heat fluxes are employed. Nevertheless, the ratio of ΔTs (i.e. ΔT1/ ΔT2) in
all cases remains nearly constant (~1.6), which will be discussed further
in details. The cooling effectiveness (ε) of the roughened heat sink can be
defined as:
ΔT1 − ΔT2
ε= (5)
ΔT1
The calculated cooling effectiveness is therefore 38.01%, 39.14%,
and 36.96% for the heat fluxes of 8000 W/m2, 10,000 W/m2, and
12,000 W/m2, respectively. This means that replacing a conventional
heat sink with the roughened heat sink of the same size results in more
than 35% enhancement of cooling effectiveness under forced air
Uncertainty of Standard Accuracy Total
repetition deviation uncertainty
0.057 ◦ C 0.099 ±0.5 ◦ C 0.154 ◦ C
0.076 ◦ C 0.132 ±0.5 ◦ C 0.163 ◦ C
0.025 ◦ C 0.121 ±0.5 ◦ C 0.146 ◦ C
– – ±0.5 V 0.144 V
– – ±0.8 A 0.231 A
M.R. Attar et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100742

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e)
24.24 nm
24.24 nm

1 μm

0 nm

Fig. 3. SEM images of (a-b) conventional and (c-d) micro/nano roughened aluminum heat sinks. e) AFM image of the micro/nano roughened aluminum heat
sink surface.

0 ms 4 ms 8 ms 12 ms 16 ms 20 ms

Fig. 4. Consecutive contact angle of 10 μl water droplet on the roughened heat sink surface.

convection, irrespective of the system’s heat flux. As a result, theoreti­
cally, systems generating higher heat fluxes may be thermally managed
when roughened heat sinks of the same sizes are employed under forced
air convection condition.
3.2.1.2. Roughened surfaces for more efficient heat sinks. To quantify the
improved performance of a conventional heat sink after surface rough­
ening treatment, a simple energy balance can be executed as [51]:
Q∝hA(TPCB − T∞ ) (6)

6
M.R. Attar et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100742

(hA)2 ΔT1
= (9)
(hA)1 ΔT2

The measured values for temperature differences at a constant heat

flux of 10,000 W/m2 for the conventional and roughened heat sinks are
28.1 ◦ C and 17.7 ◦ C, respectively. Therefore, the ratio of total heat
transfer coefficient (hA)
(hA)
2
for the two heat sinks is ≃ 1.6. This means that
1

using a micro/nano roughened heat sink instead of a conventional heat

Fig. 5. Evolution of PCB temperature in free and forced air convection at the
heat flux of 8000 W/m2 when conventional or roughened heat sinks are used
for thermal management.
herein, Q is the rate of generated heat of the PCB (i.e. the heat flux times
the PCB area), h the convection heat transfer coefficient, A the heat sink
total surface area, TPCB the PCB temperature, and T∞ the ambient tem­
perature. For the conventional heat sink [52]:
Q The average thermal resistance (Rth ) of cooling modules can be written
(hA)1 ∝ (7)
ΔT1
and for the roughened heat sink:
Q In Fig. 8, the average thermal resistance for the conventional and
(hA)2 ∝ (8)
ΔT2
To obtain the ratio of total heat transfer coefficient (hA) for the two
heat sinks, considering the fact that the heat flux and area of the PCB are
the same for both heat sinks (i.e. Q is the same), we can have [52]:
sink results in almost 60% enhancement in total heat transfer coefficient
(hA) under forced air convection condition.
To experimentally verify the possibility of replacing a conventional
heat sink with a similar size roughened heat sink for the thermal man­
agement of systems with higher heat fluxes, we compared the perfor­
mance of a conventional heat sink at a heat flux of 12,000 W/m2 with
that of a roughened heat sink at 1.6 times higher heat flux (i.e. 19,200
W/m2). Alternatively, the performance of a roughened heat sink at a
heat flux of 12,000 W/m2 is compared with that of a conventional heat
sink at nearly 1.6 times lower heat flux (i.e. 7500 W/m2). The transient
time-temperature responses of these two systems are presented in Fig. 7a
and b, respectively. As seen in these curves, the PCB temperature for the
two cases is very similar. Therefore, at a constant PCB temperature, the
60% enhancement of the heat transfer by roughening the surface of the
heat sink (previous section) is further verified.
The inverse of the total heat transfer coefficient can be regarded as
the average thermal resistance of the system and is considered as an
important parameter in assessing the performance of cooling units [53].
as [12]:
TPCB − T∞ 1
Rth = = (10)
Q hA
roughened heat sinks under three heat fluxes are provided. Accordingly,
the average thermal resistance is reduced by 38.01%, 39.14%, and
36.96% for heat fluxes of 8000, 10,000, and 12,000 W/m2, respectively,
when the roughened heat sink is utilized instead of the conventional
heat sink.

Fig. 6. The ambient temperature and transient time-temperature responses of conventional and micro/nano roughened heat sinks for forced air convection under a
heat flux of a) 8000, b) 10,000, and c) 12,000 W/m2. The ratio ΔT1/ ΔT2 is also plotted on the right axis where ΔT1 and ΔT2 are the differences between the PCB and
the ambient temperatures for the conventional and roughened heat sinks, respectively.

7
M.R. Attar et al.
Fig. 7. The time response of the measured PCB temperature for conventional heat sink and its roughened counterpart at a) 1.6 times higher flux for roughened sink
and b) 1.6 times lower flux for the conventional heat sink.
Fig. 8. The thermal resistance of conventional and micro/nano roughened heat
sinks at different heat fluxes.
3.2.1.3. Roughened surfaces for reducing the size of heat sinks. From
these results it can be inferred that for maintaining a PCB with a certain
heat flux at a target temperature value, a conventional heat sink can be
replaced by a smaller heat sink with roughened surface. This is an
important feature from the economical point of view and can aid with
manufacturing smaller electronic components. This size reduction pos­
sibility is successfully demonstrated by comparing the PCB temperature
that is cooled by a conventional heat sink with that cooled by a rough­
ened heat sink with an almost 1.6 times smaller (37% reduction) surface
area, as shown in Fig. 9. In other words, the effective heat exchange
surface ration between the roughened and conventional heat sinks (A*/
A) is 63%.
The BET surface analysis, however, showed that the specific surface
area of the conventional heat sink (0.028 m2/g) increases after rough­
ening process (0.119 m2/g) by a factor of 4.25. From the BET surface
analysis, it becomes obvious that not all the micro/nano rough features
that are formed on the heat sink after roughening process contribute to
the heat transfer enhancement. In fact, it is expected that the very small
air pocket circulation and additional air vortices near the nano and
micron size features are redundant in the improvement of the heat
transfer of the sinks. Nevertheless, as will be discussed later, the for­
mation of these deep and small features results in the reduction of the
overall mass of the roughened sinks.
8
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100742
Fig. 9. The time response of the measured PCB temperature for conventional
heat sink and its roughened counterpart with 37% smaller surface area for a
system with 12,000 W/m2 heat flux.
3.2.1.4. Roughened surfaces for lighter heat sinks. The heat sink mass
before and after the etching process was 210 gr and 195 gr, respectively,
reflecting 7.1% reduction of the total mass. Assuming that the redepo­
sition of dissolved metal during the chemical etching process is negli­
gible, this reduction of the mass of heat sinks can be attributed solely to
the dissolution of metal, especially at the dislocations and defects (see
Section 3.1). This is another advantage of the present method for
improvement of the cooling efficiency of heat sinks, as compared to
other methods such as DMLS which often result in an increased mass of
the sinks after modification.
3.2.1.5. The heat sinks performance under an intermittent load. Thermal
hysteresis and thermal fatigue are important characteristics of cooling
modules. To further investigate the performance of conventional and
roughened heat sinks under intermittent loads (i.e. on/off switching),
four cycles of heating/cooling (30 sec./15 sec.) are selected. The
behavior of transient PCB temperature at a heat flux of 10,000 W/m2 for
the two systems is shown in Fig. 10. As is depicted in this figure, the
maximum and minimum temperatures (peaks and valleys) for conven­
tional heat sink are 48.7 ◦ C and 28.6 ◦ C, whereas for roughened heat
sink these values are nearly 41 ◦ C and 27.7 ◦ C, respectively. In neither
case, the temperature–time hysteresis is detected. Consequently, using a
M.R. Attar et al.
Fig. 10. The transient time-temperature response of conventional and rough­
ened heat sinks under intermittent loads for a system with the heat flux of
10,000 W/m2. The on and off cycles were 30 s and 15 s, respectively.
heat sink with a roughened surface can decrease the PCB temperature
under intermittent loads without influencing the service performance of
the cooling device during the on/off cycles.
3.2.2. Free convection
When the conventional and roughened heat sinks are compared
under free convection (i.e. without external fan), the beneficial effect of
surface roughening is less pronounced compared to the forced air con­
vection scenario (discussed in Section 3.2.1). This phenomenon may be
attributed to a very small air velocity near the heat sink surfaces in free
convection. According to Eq. (5), the cooling effectiveness ratio upon
roughening treatment of the heat sink surface in free convection case is
0.14 at cutoff temperature. In another word, even in the absence of an
external fan, the cooling effectiveness of a roughened heat sink is almost
14% improved compared to its conventional counterpart. As mentioned
earlier, the micro/nano features on the surface of roughened sinks,
which in turn increase the effective surface area of the sinks, are
responsible for this improved cooling efficiency.
4. Conclusions
In this study, to enhance the cooling capability of conventional
aluminum heat sinks, an economical, innovative, and environmentally
friendly method was proposed by creating micro/nano-roughness on the
heat sink surface with the aid of a chemical etching process. Two
different cooling modules, conventional and micro/nano roughened
heat sinks, were tested for the thermal management of a printed circuit
board (PCB) at heat fluxes of 8000–12,000 W/m2. The performance of
conventional and micro/nano heat sinks was compared under forced air
convection and free convection conditions and the obtained results can
be summarized as:
• The cooling effectiveness of the conventional heat sink under forced
air convection was improved by 38.01%, 39.14%, and 36.96% for
the heat fluxes of 8000 W/m2, 10,000 W/m2, and 12,000 W/m2,
respectively after surface roughening.
• At free convection, the improved cooling efficiency of the roughened
heat sink was 14% at heat fluxes of 8000 W/m2.
• Replacing a conventional heat sink with its micro/nano roughened
counterpart allows for the reduction of the size of the heat sink by
37% for the thermal management of PCBs of similar heat fluxes.
• The roughening process results in the mass reduction of the heat sink
by 7.1%, which allows for production of lighter electronic devices.
9
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100742
Overall, the innovative approach that is presented in this work en­
ables industrial production of more efficient, smaller, and lighter heat
sinks through a very cheap, simple, and environmentally procedure and
would open up the possibility of reducing the overall costs of the thermal
management of the electronic devices in large scale and contributes to
reducing the carbon emission to the environment from electronics.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
MRA, MM, AT, MPF, MHS, and AD acknowledge FUM for financial
supporting. SH thanks Prof W Peukert, BMBF-MSRT (CAlSAB,
01DK20097), and Emerging Talents Initiative (ETI) 2018/2_Tech_06,
FAU (Grant No. 2018/2), Germany, grants for supporting his research.
Sandra Wittpahl (FAU) is acknowledged for the BET surface area
measurement.
Authors contribution
MRA conceptualization, data collection, experimental design, partial
writing. MM and AT data collections, experimental design, partial
writing. SH data collection, partial writing, review and editing. MPF,
MHS, and AD funding acquisition, leading the project, review and
editing.
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