Cooler chips

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a means to remove five times more heat than any other experimental method currently developed for cooling integrated circuits.

Conventional circuits generate about 100W per square centimetre, peaking in small hot spots. Today, the chips are air-cooled with finned metal plates called heat sinks and often a small fan.

But the new so-called 'microjet technology' developed at Purdue is capable of cooling chips that produce more than 1000W of heat per square centimetre, according to Issam Mudawar, a professor of mechanical engineering who is leading the researchers.

Here's how the technique works: first, a hydroflurocarbon coolant is forced through a metal plate containing tiny holes. The liquid then flows along channels formed on top of a chip. As the liquid inside the channels is heated by the hot chip, it bubbles and momentarily becomes a vapour, cooling the device. The coolant then collects at both ends of the channels and is circulated back through the system.