Significant factors affecting heat transfer performance of vapor chamber and strategies to promote it: A critical review

The increasing heat flux of electronic systems, caused by the miniaturization and high integration, has posed a huge challenge to efficient and effective thermal management. Vapor chamber (VC), a very promising heat spreader due to its high thermal conductivity and ability to eliminate hot spots in narrow spaces, has been extensively studied and widely utilized in various fields. For the further development and application of VC, it is of great significance to master the laws and internal mechanisms among various factors affecting heat transfer performance, and then optimize performance accordingly. This paper systematically reviews the global research on VC, aiming to provide the current development status and a certain reference for future design. First of all, some significant factors affecting the heat transfer performance of VC, with particular emphasis on the wick structure, are introduced and compared. Then the commonly-used strategies to enhance the heat transfer performance are summarized based on the above analysis. Subsequently, the applications of VC in various fields are presented. Finally, the remaining challenges and some recommendations for future research are outlined.