Research engineers at Purdue University are developing tiny fans to more effectively cool the ever-increasing numbers of chips and processors in modern computers.
Since 1965, computer engineers have kept alive Moore's Law, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's prediction that the number of transistors on a chip would double every 24 months. Advances in technology made that possible, but engineers have recently been hit with a new problem: how to keep these chips from overheating, which can impair operation of, and eventually fry, computer components.
As technology improves and more chips are crammed into a smaller space, computers run hotter. Purdue researcher Suresh Garimella says it's imperative that cooling technologies keep up.
"Even if it's just a bit overheated, [a computer's] performance and reliability goes down," Garimella said in a press release. "Another reason for cooling is to improve performance as you go to smaller and smaller devices."
Compact cooling technologies are especially vital in small devices such as laptops and blackberries, which are too small to house conventional fans. The new technology being developed at Purdue may unseat conventional fans as the cooling device of choice for future electronics.
The devices disperse heat by waving a small blade in alternate directions, like the motion of a hand-held fan. An alternating electric current is applied to piezoelectric ceramic attached the blades, which move continuously to and fro.
In experiments performed on laptop computers, the researchers found their new fans cooled the device's interior by as much as eight degrees.
This simple technology is also much quieter than normal fans and uses very little power. They have no gears or bearings, meaning they produce little friction or heat, and they consume only about 1/150th the electricity of conventional fans. According to the research team, the fans run on two milliwatts of electricity, compared with 300 milliwatts for conventional fans.
"For a very small power expenditure, we are able to get a huge benefit," Garimella said.
Research on the fans is presented in a paper written by Philipp Buermann, a former Purdue graduate student who now studies at Germany's Dresden University of Technology in Germany, Arvind Raman and Garimella, both assistant professors of mechanical engineering at Purdue.
Their findings will be presented in a paper being delivered Jan. 15 during the Thermal Challenges in Next Generation Electronic Systems conference in Santa Fe, N.M.
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