Abstract: High-temperature ceramic microchannel heat exchangers, which combines excellent thermal resistance with structural compactness, represent a critical technology for next-generation high-efficiency thermal systems. However, the intrinsic high hardness and brittleness of ceramic materials pose significant challenges to the integrated fabrication of complex microchannel architectures. Conventional approaches typically adopt a two-dimensional stacked assembly of prefabricated cold/hot microchannel plates along the height direction. This leads to low spatial utilisation and mismatches between fluid flow and heat transfer fields, thereby limiting both structural compactness and heat transfer performance. Additive manufacturing (AM), with its unique capability for layer-by-layer integrated construction of intricate structures, breaks through the design constraints of the conventional approach. It enables a paradigm shift in microchannel design from a “manufacturing-driven” to a “performance-driven” approach, offering significant potential for maximizing spatial efficiency and enhancing field synergy between flow and heat transfer. This review systematically summarizes recent status in the additive manufacturing of high-temperature ceramic microchannel heat exchangers, with a focus on structural design strategies, fabrication processes, technical challenges, and representative application scenarios. Furthermore, development trends are discussed in the context of practical demands, aiming to provide technical guidance for the innovative design and engineering application of high-performance microchannel heat exchangers.

Key words: additive manufacturing, ceramic microchannel heat exchangers, microchannel design, thermal performance