Competitors work together
to lessen heat in electronics
By Lori Kohls
Staff Writer
Rising temperatures can cause problems serious
enough for several fierce competitors in industry to work together to
find ways to take down the heat.
These companies are coming together at Purdue to
discuss possible solutions for overheating in electronics through the
Cooling Technology Research Consortium.
Suresh Garimella, an associate professor of mechanical
engineering, founded the consortium in 1999. Garimella said, "The key
limitation to enhancing performance of computers or technology is they
get too hot."
Tiny chips in electronics produce an enormous amount
of heat, that if spread over a larger area, would be easier to cool.
In order to perform as intended, the computer chips must stay below
85 degrees centigrade. As cell phones and other electronics get smaller
and more functions are added, they generate increasingly more heat.
The center is developing several different ways
of reducing the heat. One is designing and optimizing pizeo-electric
fans, which cool the device while only consuming a small amount of power.
Other benefits to these fans are that they are small, silent and relatively
cheap.
A second method being researched is putting tiny
grooves, the size of a human hair, along the silicon chip. Pumping liquid
through these micro-channels would help to remove the heat.
A third project being researched involves the use
of phase-change materials, such as wax, to absorb heat as it melts.
This could be important in the future with electric cars. Energy captured
in the wax while the car is running could be used for a faster start
the next time it is turned on.
Many of the technologies developed by the center
are already in use in electronic products, and are increasingly being
used across the board. Pizeo-electric fans are in place in many laptops,
as are heat pipes that displace heat from the tiny chip across the base
of the computer.
These projects are currently funded by the involved
industries, though Garimella said he hopes to get grants from the National
Science Foundation soon.
These grants are hard to come by, but receiving
them holds a lot of prestige for the consortium. "It sends out a clear
message that we're a leading institution in terms of this type of research,"
says Eckhard Groll, associate professor in mechanical engineering.
Groll is working on miniaturizing cooling technologies
used in larger scale operations like refrigerators and buildings to
make them of use in electronics. In the future, Groll hopes to see the
consortium "have all major players (in industry) come to Purdue to solve
their cooling problems "
The foundation grant will allow industry and the
university cooperative research center to be established to involve
more industries and include more faculty. There are 10 faculty members
from various schools and several graduate students working with the
center.
The consortium model allows the involved industries
to pool interests and work on similar problems. There are eight industries
involved including Apple, Eaton, Nokia and Philips.
There is a planning meeting concerning the grant
on Oct. 29 and 30. Between 40 and 45 industries are invited to hear
about current research, and possibly join.
"More importantly, we want (the industries) to
critique us," said Garimella, "so we can make the center more applicable
and get more industries involved."
The consortium model for research funding has many
advantages but doesn't come without challenges. Negotiating between
several different companies and their lawyers can be difficult when
they are often in competition with each other. This means the focus
is on long-term projects.
Dan Hirleman, head of the department of mechanical
engineering, said, "The greatest value of a consortium comes when a
company is effective at taking the pre-competitive research and quickly
incorporating it into products."
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