New Electrochemical Cell Designs and Test Methods for Corrosion Testing of the Components in Integrated Circuit Liquid Cooling Systems

Abstract

This paper introduces new electrochemical cells and testing methods that are ideal for characterizing corrosion risk assessment of the components used for liquid cooling system with high surface to liquid volume ratio. Two cell configurations are described in this paper and they use three electrode and two electrode cells. These cells have the identical structure except for the number of electrodes. These cells are made by sandwiching the working electrode plate (sample) and the counter electrode plate (graphite) with a spacer (gasket), and by filling the cavity with the liquid under interest. In case of the three-electrode cell, the reference electrode is inserted through the hole in the graphite. The three-electrode cell is ideal for the quantitative characterization of the corrosion rate by utilizing conventional electrochemical techniques such as a Tafel method. The use of the two-electrode cell is similar to the case of the galvanic corrosion characterization as it measures the cell current that flows between the dissimilar metals that are in contact with the liquid. When coupled with computer assisted data acquisition, the two-electrode cell configuration allows the characterization of long-term corrosion reliability of a component with a variation in a large number of test variables. It is particularly useful in finding corrosion inhibitors.