Faster and cheaper way to cool electronic devices developed

Washington, Apr 10 (ANI): Researchers have come up with a more efficient and a less expensive way of cooling electronic devices - especially devices that generate a lot of heat, like lasers and power devices.

The technique, developed by a North Carolina State University researcher, uses a "heat spreader" made of a copper-graphene composite, which is attached to the electronic device using an indium-graphene interface film

"Both the copper-graphene and indium-graphene have higher thermal conductivity, allowing the device to cool efficiently," said Dr. Jag Kasichainula, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and author of a paper on the research.

Thermal conductivity is the rate at which a material conducts heat.

In fact, Kasichainula found that the copper-graphene film's thermal conductivity allows it to cool approximately 25 percent faster than pure copper, which is what most devices currently use.

Dissipating heat from electronic devices is important, because the devices become unreliable when they become too hot.

The paper also lays out the manufacturing process for creating the copper-graphene composite, using an electrochemical deposition process.

"The copper-graphene composite is also low-cost and easy to produce," Kasichainula said.

"Copper is expensive, so replacing some of the copper with graphene actually lowers the overall cost," Kasichainula added.

The paper has been published in Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B. (ANI)