Super-Cooled Computer Chips

RESEARCHERS have demonstrated a new technology using tiny `ionic wind engines’ that might dramatically improve computer chip cooling, possibly addressing a looming threat to future advances in computers and electronics.

The Purdue University researchers, in work funded by Intel Corp., have shown that the technology increased the “heat-transfer coefficient,” which describes the cooling rate, by as much as 250 per cent.

When used in combination with a conventional fan, the experimental device enhanced the fan’s effectiveness by increasing airflow to the surface of a mock computer chip. The new technology could help engineers design thinner laptop computers that run cooler than today’s machines.

Findings are detailed in a research paper that has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Physics and is tentatively scheduled to appear in the Sept 1 issue. The paper was authored by mechanical engineering doctoral student David Go, Garimella, associate professor of mechanical engineering Timothy Fisher and Intel research engineer Rajiv Mongia.

Advanced cooling technologies are needed to help industry meet the conflicting goals of developing more compact and lightweight computers that are still powerful enough to run high-intensity programmes for video games and other graphics-laden applications. Conventional cooling technologies are limited by a principle called the `no-slip’ effect – as air flows over an object, the air molecules nearest the surface remain stationary. The molecules farther away from the surface move progressively faster. This phenomenon hinders computer cooling because it restricts airflow where it is most needed, directly on the chip’s hot surface. The new approach potentially solves this problem by using the ionic wind effect in combination with a conventional fan to create airflow immediately adjacent to the chip’s surface, Fisher said.

The device was created at Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center in the university’s Discovery Park. The researchers quantified the cooling effect with infrared imaging, which showed the technology reduced heating from about 60 degrees Celsius – or 140 degrees Fahrenheit – to about 35 degrees Celsius, or 95 Fahrenheit.

The next step in the research will be to reduce the size of components within the device from the scale of millimetres to microns, or millionths of a metre. Miniaturising the technology will be critical to applying the method to computers and consumer electronics, allowing the device to operate at lower voltage and to cool small hot spots, Garimella said.

Another challenge will be making the technology rugged enough for commercial applications.

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