This study demonstrates an enhanced heat transfer coefficient by burst-mode actuation of a dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma actuator (DBDPA) in a microchannel flow at a low Reynolds number. First, a two-dimensional direct numerical simulation (DNS) was conducted to determine the optimal operating range of two burst-mode parameters (burst frequency ƒ^{+ and burst ratio BR) for heat transfer enhancement. At lower ƒ+, the induced flow grew into a larger vortex pair, collided with the top wall surface, and was advected to the outlet while maintaining the vortex pair. The advection of the vortex pair enhanced the diffusion and mixing of the temperature boundary layer on the upper and lower wall surfaces. The effect on heat transfer was compared in terms of the average Nusselt numbers. An optimum range was obtained from the results, and the Nusselt number showed a potential increase up to 1.9 times than that without the DBDPA, in the ƒ+ range of 50−100 Hz and BR range of 50−90%. Furthermore, the flow field and cooling performance were measured using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and thermocouples based on the conditions obtained from the numerical simulation. The vorticity contours from the PIV measurement demonstrated the advection of vortices ejected from the bottom wall surface and the vortex pair advected to the outlet, as shown in the numerical simulation. Temperature measurements indicated that the cooling performance could be improved by up to 1.3 times than when DBDPA was off. The lower enhancement in the experiment as compared with the numerical simulations could be caused by the heat generation from the DBDPA, which was not considered in the numerical simulation; moreover, the body force in the experiment might be weaker than that in the numerical simulation. However, heat transfer enhancement by burst-mode actuation of the DBDPA was successfully demonstrated in a laminar microchannel flow, independent of the flow rate.}