Sandia National Laboratories announced that their Sandia Cooling technology has been licensed by two companies, bringing the Sandia Cooler heat sink much closer to the production phase.
According to the company, the redesigned architecture for the air-cooled heat exchanger “simultaneously eliminates all three drawbacks of conventional air-cooled heat exchanger technology.”
As part of the redesigned architecture, a counterclockwise-rotating structure “that combines the functionality of cooling fins with a centrifugal impeller” reportedly contributes to a significant reduction of the boundary layer thickness by subjecting dead air to a centrifugal pumping effect.
In addition, according to Sandia, high-speed rotation prevents the issue of heat exchanger fouling and “the direct drive advantage,” in which relative motion between the cooling fins and ambient air is created by rotating the heat exchanger,” increases aerodynamic efficiency and reduces noise.
Now that the technology has been licensed out, the Sandia Cooler will hopefully begin to fulfill its exciting potential to contribute to smaller, quieter, and more efficient electronics.
