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nanotimes Companies

11-02/03 :: February / March 2011

Heat Transfer // GE Scientists Demonstrate Breakthrough Thermal Material System to Enable Faster Computing

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cientists in GE’s Global Research Center have demonstrated an advanced thermal material

system that could pave the way to faster computing and higher performing electronic systems. Leveraging technologies developed under GE’s Nanotechnology Advanced Technology Program, they have fabrica- ted a prototype substrate that can cool electronic devices such as a laptop computer twice as well as copper.

Since the dawn of the electronics age, copper has been a preferred material to cool electronics becau- se of its favorable heat conducting properties. But as electronic systems become more advanced, they are generating more and more heat. Too much heat can limit the overall performance of these systems, impacting computing speed and processing power. New breakthrough materials will be needed to ena- ble more advanced systems and applications.

The development of GE’s prototype substrate, which utilizes phase-change-based heat transfer, is part of a four year, $6 million program funded by the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA).

Dr. Tao Deng, a senior scientist at GE Global Re- search and the project leader, said, “As electronics become more advanced, we are approaching the

point where conventional materials like copper can’t take the heat. For computing to go faster and electro- nics systems to become more capable, better cooling solutions such as GE’s prototype substrate will be required to allow this to happen.” Deng added, “In demonstrations, GE’s prototype substrate has func- tioned effectively in a variety of electronics appli- cation environments. We also subjected it to harsh conditions during testing and found it could success- fully operate in extremely high gravity applications.”

http://visualization.geblogs.com/visualization/nanotech/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBf0i4hsl88&featur e=player_embedded

Edison’s Desk at: http://ge.geglobalresearch.com/blog/a-breakthrough-in- conducting-heat-for-electronics/