'Nano-Lightning' Could Cool Computer Chips

FizzyC writes "A story on New Scientist describes a technique to cool computer chips using charged ions. The system consists of 300 electrodes that ionise and then pump the air molecules across the surface of the chip. The Purdue University technology is the first air-based system to produce a cooling rate similar to water - 40 watts per square centimetre."

Comments

Question is...

[shachart]

How much heat does this heatsink *produce*, by ionizing air. I suspect than not much less than the 40W/cm2 it claims to cool.

Re:Question is...

[Smidge204]

Probably none. Don't confuse ionizing air with generating plasma.

This is very similar to the "Ionic Breeze" air cleaners, using high voltage potentials to move air. The heat it generates is absolutely negligible.
=Smidge=

Cooling Things with Outside Air?

[core plexus]

I'm curious, why is there no work on cooling things using outside air? Where I live (Alaska) it is generally cool for 8 months of the year. I wonder why we don't have fridges that exchange cool air from outside, and with some polishing, use cool air to cool our computers. In some parts of Alaska, they get -40 (40 degrees below zero) for weeks. Seems like it would be an energy saver. Can anyone correct me or point to some info?

-cp-

Alaska Village invited to test cheap, clean nuclear power

Re:Cooling Things with Outside Air?

[El]

I've often wondered this myself. Why are refrigerator coils mounted on the back of the refrigerator, instead of outside? Why do we use upright refrigerators instead of chest style, which don't get filled with hot air everytime you open the door? Why do people drive SUVs that get 16MPG and are less safe (due to their higher center of gravity) than a hybrid which costs less and gets 50MPG? Why doesn't anybody install ground source thermal heating/air conditioning, instead of using outside air as a heat sink (ground stays at about 68 degrees year round, outside air is always hotter when you want to cool and cooler when you want to heat.)

The only answer I can think of is that the average consumer is an idiot! Most people would rather save $1 today than $10 over the next 20 years. (Oh, and if you installed the refrigerator coils outside, you would have to pay to have it installed by an A/C professional.)

Re:Cooling Things with Outside Air?

[bluGill]

Mount the coils outside how? Paying some tech $500 to install a $1200 fridge, instead of pluging in a simple factory built all in one system for $800? False ecconomices in many cases, if you consider all the energy needed to make and install that more complex system.

Chest freezers exist are dangerious, kids do fall into them and die if nobody discovers it. Sure you are strong enough to lift the lid from the inside, but little kids are not.

Lets see that Hybred car tow my boat out of the lake. Now if those hybreds where cheap enough that a person could afford to own both, and use whichever is best you would be right. However most people cannot afford (don't forget the extra storage space needed) that many more vechicals. So they compromise, the SUV can tow the boat and get to work, so they buy both. I also assume you have not tried to make a long road trip in a hybred car, they are not comforatble, while the SUV is comfortable and if you figure passanger mile getting close to 60. (IIRC Airplanes get ~40)

Have you looked at the cost of a ground source heat pump? 6 times the cost of a regular furnance. How are you going to pay for it? Sure they are better, but are they really that much better? You have to be positive you will live in one spot for 20 years to make it worth while, and then get lucky in getting a model that doesn't break down too often. I looked at putting on in, even doing work myself I couldn't justify the cost. Thats assuming you get it installed correctly, around here there are a few systems that don't work so good because they didn't get far enough below the frost line and end up no better than an air source heat pump. (read doesn't work when the air temp is below 0F)

Maybe the average person is an idiot, but even still things do not work out near as well as you say. Which of the above have you done? Resteraunts normally have coils on the roof, so you could find someone to install it for you if you really belived what you said. Do you have a chest fride taking up room in your kitchen, or do you also have a normal upright model? Is your heat from a ground source heat pump?

Honestly the only thing that makes sense for anyone is the Hybred car. Even then a diesel will beat it in some cases. My Geo Metro gets nearly as good milage, and is a lot less complex. I ran the numbers many times before a change in jobs made it worthwhile, and even then I just barely gain in the long run. My truck gets 21 mpg though. Many SUVs get similear.

dunno about that but...

[WormholeFiend]

the article starts out by overhyping the technology and ends with cautious optimism with quotes from someone working on it.

at this point in time, this sounds to me as cool as reading an article about teaching bees to flap their wings inside my case to cool the circuits down.

Hmmm... Maybe some problems here.

[CyberVenom]

As I read it, basically, the air is ionized by electrodes, and the ionized air is then pulled across the heat sink via electric charge. This happens to be the same concept as used in the "Ion Air Purifiers" that are advertised on TV. This is supposedly more efficient because the airflow is induced along the surface of the heatsink directly instead of the brute-force method of a fan where the air is thrown at the heatsink en masse and it is hoped that it diplaces the hot air already there. Kinda makes me wonder how this would work in a real-world environment... small particles like dust, pollen, and smoke are attracted to the ionized surfaces (this is how the air purifiers work), so in a place like Southern California, I would imagine that the dust buildup on the heatsink would be much worse with this method than a fan... And dust buildup on a heatsink is not only an insulator, but in the case of the ionized airflow heatsink, it may actually render the ionization process useless, and the air will cease to flow, creating not only an insulated heatsink, but dead air over it.

Re:Consarnit.

[smack_attack]

The reason no one has replaced their fans with Ionic Breezes is because they move air slowly and require constant cleaning. They simply don't remove heat from the case fast enough. You even said so yourself: "They don't throughput much air, and they need constant cleaning,"

Re:Hmmm... Maybe some problems here.

[Muhammar]

The stationary layer on the surface of heatsink is the problem, which they try to fix with their invention.

Instead of playing with a high frequency/high voltage surface of the heat sink, I am thinking about a small but high velocity air fan and a dimple-patterned heat sink surface for maximum turbulence. I believe it is possible to generate air vortex over a small surface even with a modest power supply fan. Alternatively, I would use a piezo crystal vibrating the heat sink surface in an (unaudible) ultrasonic frequency for the same effect.

Short-circuit?

[dragonfly28]

So you would want to make a bunch of ions inside your computer, don't get me wrong but would'nt you have some electrical problems then.

When I recenty installed some new memory, it came with a nice static electricity warning. So now you would want to make a gas-cloud of ions inside your computer, if static electricity can kill your components doesn't that mean that ions can too?

Ok, as long as the system is running the ions are trapped between all those electrodes, but where to these ions go when you switch off the power?

Better have some capacitators ready......