WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., March 22 (UPI) -- U.S. mechanical engineers hope to patent a cooling system for computers that circulates nano-scale wind currents around its circuits.
The Purdue University engineers harnessed microscopic lightning in their "micro-scale ion-driven airflow" device, which could cool microchips to the same level as liquid systems.
Future computer chips will use more circuitry and components and will generate more heat, so engineers have been looking for new ways to draw heat from chips without the risk of liquid coolants.
The new technique works by passing voltage into negatively charged electrodes made of nanotubes with tips five billionths of a meter wide. The process generates extra electrons that react with the surrounding air, eventually creating microscopic lightning bolts.
The ionized molecules draw air currents, such as those associated with the corona winds of large-scale lightning -- but on a microscopic scale.
