Ionic Winds to Cool Computer Chips?

Researchers at Purdue University an "ionic breeze" technique that could improve fan-based cooling of computer components by as much as 250 percent.

Researchers at Purdue University, working in collaboration with Intel, have developed a prototype device which uses an “ionic breeze” in conjunction with traditional fan-based cooling to dissipate heat from computer chips. And now, it’s not something you’d buy from the Sharper Image.

The premise is a little unusual: the “ionic engine” attached to a computer chip produces positively charged ions; these, in turn get “dragged” across the surface of the chip towards a negatively charged cathode. All this happens at a very tiny, molecular scale, but in the process of moving from one node to the other, the ions force air molecules on the surface of the chip to move rather than remain “stuck” in one place. In combination with conventional fan-based cooling, the ionic engine increases the cooling rate by up to 250 percent.

The research has been underway for several years, and had previous been described as using “mini lightning storms” to cool electronic components. Professor Suresh Garimella, one of the research authors, .: “Other experimental cooling-enhancement approaches might give you a 40 percent or a 50 percent improvement. A 250 percent improvement is quite unusual.”

A paper on the research, “Ionic Winds for Locally Enhanced Cooling,” written by D.B. Go, Suresh Garimella, Timothy Fisher, and R.K. Mongia, is due to be published in theJournal of Applied Physics.

The next step is to miniaturize the prototype device; although it’s only a few millimeters across, researchers hope to make it 100 times smaller for use in a wide variety of devices. If the miniaturization succeeds, ionic cooling may see its way into products in the next three to five years.