Cold and calculated

According to Moore's Law, the performance of electronic chips will double every 18 months. If this prediction holds true, it is feared it will soon be impossible to cool these powerful devices effectively using conventional, passive cooling techniques.

To solve this problem, UK researchers hope to develop a miniature refrigerator to be installed inside personal computers to keep their chips cool.

Excess heat can have a detrimental effect on the performance and reliability of electronic chips, so the cooler they can be kept, the faster they operate. Some specialist computers are even kept at sub-zero temperatures to maximise their power.

Dr Brian Agnew from

school of mechanical and systems engineering is leading a three-year, government-funded project, which involves industrial partners. Working with colleagues from the universities of

and

, Agnew's team hopes to design a low-cost micro-refrigerator that will be small enough to sit on top of an electronic chip.

'We are looking to improve the heat-transfer mechanism. We will have to find a way to get rid of heat on something as small as a chip by an order of magnitude,' said Agnew.