Researchers have shown that an advanced cooling technology being developed for high-power electronics in military and automotive systems is capable of handling roughly 10 times the heat generated by conventional computer chips, according to a research paper appearing online in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer. Written by mechanical engineering doctoral student Justin Weibel, Garimella and Mark North, an engineer with Thermacore, the paper will be published in the journal’s September issue.
The miniature, lightweight device uses tiny copper spheres and carbon nanotubes to passively wick a coolant toward hot electronics.
This wicking technology represents the heart of a new ultrathin “thermal ground plane,” a flat, hollow plate containing water.
