A vapor chamber is a planar phase-change heat transfer device designed for efficient cooling by rapidly spreading heat through latent heat transfer. Fabricated from various metallic materials, including aluminum, it facilitates rapid thermal dissipation via internal evaporation and condensation cycles. Operating as a passive heat transfer mechanism that requires no external power, it serves as a viable thermal management solution for high-power electronic devices. Our laboratory is currently focusing on the development of lightweight vapor chambers, primarily utilizing aluminum as the substrate material.

Unlike conventional vapor chambers known as flat-plate heat pipes, the Boiling-driven Heat Spreader (BDHS) is a phase-change thermal device that dissipates concentrated heat primarily through boiling heat transfer rather than simple internal evaporation and condensation. Joint R&D for this technology has been conducted since 2014 in collaboration with Prof. Seung Mun You's research group at the University of Texas at Dallas. A key characteristic of the BDHS is its orientation-independent thermal performance, allowing effective cooling for concentrated heat sources with high heat fluxes up to 300 W/cm². The BDHS operates effectively under high heat flux conditions by circulating internal fluids through the "bubble pumping" effect induced by boiling heat transfer. With the recent expansion of high-density data centers, liquid cooling technologies are increasingly being adopted, and this laboratory is developing technologies to apply the BDHS developed in-house to cold plates for liquid cooling systems. In parallel, BDHSs designed for large-area and high-heat-flux heat sources are being continuously developed for applications in server chips requiring high-performance cooling. In a study conducted in 2025, it was confirmed that the superior heat-spreading capability of the BDHS enables stable server chip temperature control while effectively dissipating up to approximately 870 W of thermal power.