Performance evaluation of wick-free vapor chamber featuring hierarchical laser engineered surfaces

Golobič, Iztok (author), Hadžić, Armin (author), Bahč, Gregor (author), Zupančič, Matevž (author), Može, Matic (author)

Thin vapor chambers are attractive for compact electronics but become difficult to operate reliably as the vapor space approaches the millimeter scale, especially when classical wick structures are omitted. This work investigates how coupled evaporator and condenser wettability governs the performance of a 1 mm thick wick-free vapor chamber. Six configurations are evaluated by combining three condenser surface states (reference, superhydrophilic, superhydrophobic) with either a reference copper evaporator or a laser-textured superhydrophilic evaporator. Thermal performance is assessed from 10 to 40 W using the evaporator–condenser temperature difference and overall thermal resistance. The results show that the preferred condenser wettability depends on evaporator capability. With the reference evaporator, the lowest thermal resistance at 40 W is achieved with reference and superhydrophobic condensers (1.21 and 1.18 K/W). With the laser-textured evaporator, a superhydrophilic condenser provides the best performance, and the SHPI–SHPI configuration reaches 0.77 K/W at 40 W. These findings provide practical guidance for designing ultrathin wick-free vapor chambers through coordinated interface wettability selection.

• Language: English
• Keywords: vapor chambers, thermal performance, nanosecond laser texturing, surface wettability, thermal resistance, heat transfer enhancement
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 21 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 16, issue 4, art. 1795
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179446
• UDC: 621.1:536.2
• ISSN on article: 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app16041795
• COBISS.SI-ID: 268459523
• Publication date in RUL: 13.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Applied sciences
• Shortened title: Appl. sci.
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2076-3417
• COBISS.SI-ID: 522979353

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: parne komore, izboljšanje prenosa toplote, nanosekundno lasersko teksturiranje, omočljivost površine, toplotna upornost, toplotna učinkovitost