Bell Labs Plants Nanograss to Cool Mobile Chips

LoadWB writes "TechWeb has an article about Bell Labs' new liquid cooling technology for mobile processors. The tech, called 'nanograss' is described as 'tiny tubes that spray liquid on chip hot spots.' The use of this cooling technology reduces the power required to actively remove heat from mobile processors. Other applications are possible, but it seems it was primarily developed for use with mobile CPUs."

Comments

Hmm. . . .

[ookabooka]

Brings a whole new meaning to watering the grass. . .
Seriously though, its nice to see some new heat dissipation technologies. . . but it still comes down to how much thermal energy the chip pumps out. . . this is merely equivalent to a more efficient fan/heatsink. Though it should keep the chips at a cooler temperature (compared to their standard air counterparts) your laptop is still gonna get way too hot to put on your lap.

Re:Hmm. . . .

[moreati]

If it works, it will push the envolope, improving not just total power consumption, but weight, volume & temperature also.

We already have water cooling at the macro level - a radiator + pump + heat exchanger + resevoir system will give a lower temp and less noise for the same or better heat removal capacity eg . these.

The improvement this would provide is watercooling at the micro level, just to the most critical components. The improvement in heat conductivity from the chip to the cooler should mean lower temps for the same transfer. Cooler.

The bore of the tubes implies 50 ml liquid, rather than upto 1 litre (2 pints) currently used. Lighter.

Less water for the same heat transfer means a smaller pump. Lower resistance in the chip due to lower temps would mean less power disipation. Longer running on batteries.

On the air side (dissipation from the cooler to the environment), heat exchanger tubing with ~100 micron diameter (the artivle soesn't say they've done this, but it seems a logical extension) gives enourmous surface area/unit volume, giving better dissipation for the same airflow. Quieter.

So I would surmise this is ideal for laptops, it improves all 3 of the key features - weight, longevity and actually-able-to-use-it-on-my-lapiness.

Wow

[Un0r1g1nal]

This looks like really good stuff, being able to localise the temperature dissipation would be handy for lots of technologies. I hope that this one gets developed fully and hits the markets soon. The better the cooling capacity the more we can clock our chips :)

As for having to refill the cooling agent periodically, I doubt that this would be a problem with mobile phones, this would be a completly self contained cooling system, much like a heatsink is today, (only a heatsink doesnt have a liquid running around the inside of it :P). The likelyhood is that by the time the liquid would need replacing - if ever, the phone would be at lesat a few years old, and so the owner would probably have it lying around in some drawer since they got their brand spanking new top of the range all singing all dancing holographic video phone...