Purdue University scientists have taken a page from air-conditioner technology in their quest for a new way to cool down ever-more vigorous computer chips. Their experimental system, which flushes a refrigerant through tiny channels cut into chips, is intended for the high-power electronics found in radar and advanced weapons systems such as lasers, said Issam Mudawar, a mechanical engineering professor at Purdue.

Mudawar, who’s leading the research, said the new cooling system should be able to cool chips that produce more

than 1,000 watts of heat for about every half-inch square of circuitry.

He said that would be a fivefold increase by the heat-removing abilities of existing systems that typically rely on air-cooling to waft heat away from microprocessors.

“Basically what we’re doing is opening the window of opportunity in terms of heat dissipation, so that chip developers can assemble more aggressive chips, more demanding chips,” Mudawar said.

The new cooling system […]

Orginal post by Top Tech News