AMD and Asia Vital Components Develope Irish Micro-Cooler

Researchers at the Stokes Institute in the University of Limerick have announced two licensing agreements that could see 'micro-cooler' technology used in computers.
PC Processor vendor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) has been granted a development license by the University of Limerick to customize the micro-cooler technology, while Asia Vital Components, the world's largest supplier of coolers for CPUs and micro-chip modules (MCMs), has signed a non-exclusive license to make and sell the micro-cooler.

Stokes Institute has specialized in thermal management, including microfluidics, and the technology has evolved over five years. Researchers there identified a series of previously unreported cooling interactions that can take place within and at material interfaces and that could be manipulated to create more efficient thermal management of electronic devices.

Researchers at the Stokes Institute discovered a technique of combining these fluidic phenomena with specially arranged cooling surfaces. This led to the design of a single combination cooling device that they claim is smaller, cheaper and considerably more energy efficient than technology currently on the market.

The micro-cooler is the first of a number of cooling technologies developed at the Stokes Institute that will be brought to market, the University of Limerick said.

While initially aimed at deployment in desktop computers, the technology is applicable to notebooks, netbooks and eventually to mobile phones that are becoming graphics-rich and therefore power hungry.
"In terms of personal electronic devices of all kinds, the world is moving towards smaller sizes and greater power efficiency. The team at Stokes Institute has designed a cooling technology that can make a huge impact on the ability of manufacturers to deliver these attributes at reduced cost," said Steve Huang, director of sales at Asian Vital Components (Kaohsiung,Taiwan), in a statement issued by the University of Limerick.

AVC has indicated an initial requirement for between 30 and 50 million micro-coolers; a deal that could be worth more than $1 million to the University of Limerick in license revenues.

"We work with a broad range of ivy-league institutions, and were particularly impressed with the quality of research and the market awareness that the researchers in the Stokes Institute in the University of Limerick have delivered, and also with the University's professional approach to licensing its intellectual property," said Gamal Refai-Ahmed, AMD Fellow, in the same statement. Source: EETimes.com - Peter Clarke

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