YCTek, the world biggest micro heat pipe manufacturer, has reached a formal patent license agreement with NeoGene Tech to adopt PWS (Print Wick Structuring) approach and MagicWick-Inside Technology Platform. Adopting such patented technology along with domestically-made fully automated production lines, YCTek is able to deliver ultra-thin vapor chamber devices with thickness of under 0.25mm in mass production.
NeoGene Tech, a technology platform startup located in Guangzhou Science City in China has been devoted to revolutionizing the way of designing and fabricating ultra-thin vapor chambers devices for 5G mobile computing applications. It unveiled its PWS approach as well as MagicWick-Inside Technology Platform for this regard in third-quarter 2020.
More and more heat is generated in compact devices, particularly in 5G mobile computing. Thermal management is emerging as a vital issue for all brands. Both micro heat pipe and vapor chamber are two-phase flow devices commonly used in electronics cooling, and ultra-thin vapor chamber devices are becoming necessary for smartphone and slim notebook applications. More and more smartphones adopt ultra-thin vapor chamber for thermal management, but the thickness is at above 0.3mm. The thickness of vapor chamber devices has to be as thin as possible but the size has to be as big as possible.
For 5G smartphone applications, the thickness of the vapor chambers will be migrating down to 0.25mm and below. Large area is also needed in the device for effective heat dissipation. The trend of device thickness and sizes is becoming a very tough issue in making ultra-thin vapor chamber with the traditional copper mesh wick structure approach due to the limitation of capillary force and lack of production automation.
"NeoGene Tech's mission is to change the DNA of making wick structure as well as device itself. Optimal flow channels design and wick structure fabrication are becoming crucial means to make it easier to produce ultra-thin vapor chamber with better performances. The wick structure inside the vapor chamber, called MagicWick, can be made by using a magic paste material and automatic screen printing and sintering processes. So far, we have around 10 players, including major thermal module manufacturers in Taiwan, Japan, the US, and China, that have adopted such technology sampling MagicWick-Inside VC, "said Jeffrey Chen, CEO of NeoGene Tech.
"YCTek is a pioneer company that adopts PWS approach and MagicWick-Inside Technology Platform to develop and sample a variety of ultra-thin vapor chamber devices, and we have the advantage of being the first to move into fully-automated production. For manufacturing such ultra-thin VC devices, a fully automated production line adopting print wick structuring (PWS) and continuous diffusion bonding process has been built and had trial runs at YCTek's Zhongshan plant in Guangdong province in June, 2021. The number of operators in the labor-saving full production line is very limited. The production capacity of ultra-thin MagicWick-Inside VC in full production automation is initially two millions pieces per month and it will be ramping up to six million pieces per month by third-quarter 2022. Capital investment for exclusive production lines can be also arranged without limitation to fit customers' special requirements," said David Wang, chairman of YCTek.
YCTek has implemented fully-automated production
Photo: Company
