Novel method controls heat in electronics

A team of French researchers has come up with a new technique to dissipate heat in electronics. The "thermal cloaking" method taps into some of the same principles as optical cloaking and may lead to novel ways to control heat in electronics, the researchers indicated.

Recent advances in invisibility cloaks are based on the physics of transformation optics that involves metamaterials and bending light so that it propagates around a space rather than through it. The French researchers investigated whether a similar approach might be possible for thermal diffusion.

"Our key goal with this research was to control the way heat diffuses in a manner similar to those that have already been achieved for waves, such as light waves or sound waves, by using the tools of transformation optics," stated Guenneau Sebastien, researcher affiliated with both the University of Aix-Marseille and France's Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (CRNS).

The researchers applied the mathematics of transformation optics to equations for thermal diffusion to create their thermal invisibility cloak. They altered the geometry of isotherms to make them go around rather than through a circular region so that any object placed in this region can be shielded from the flow of heat.

"We can design a cloak so that heat diffuses around an invisibility region, which is then protected from heat. Or we can force heat to concentrate in a small volume, which will then heat up very rapidly," Guenneau noted.

Guenneau and colleagues said they are developing prototypes of their thermal cloaks for microelectronics, which they expect to have ready within the next few months.

- Nicolas Mokhoff
??EE Times