Computer chips get hot when used extensively. Hence they slow down and become less reliable. A better cooling system will enable faster computers, longer-lasting electronics and more powerful electric vehicles. Taking an idea from the super-hydrophobic wings of cicada insects, scientists have a crazy plan for cooling future computers by water droplets.
Scientists have developed a water droplet system that could efficiently cool the future computers while running at top speed. This smart technique has the potential to be versatile than existing cooling systems.
The super-hydrophobic wings of cicada insects repulse water and release energy. This causes water droplets to literally jump off the surface and cleans the surface.
- READ: Droplet Computer
Chuan-Hua Chen, one of the researcher said, “The new system takes advantage of the way water droplets naturally produce a small amount of energy when they merge, as the surface area of the drop is reduced, and less energy is required to flatten them out.”
In this system, scientists placed a sponge-like substance that constrains moisture. The moisture evaporates near any hotspots and is forced onto a hydrophobic surface that placed below the sponge.
In addition, there are water condensers, and passive cooling structures placed in the system. As the water builds, droplets merge, and the hydrophobic coating causes it to jump back up to the sponge, where it’s trapped again and the process repeats.
Chen said, “As an analogy, to avoid flooding, it is useful to spread the rain over a large area. But if the ground is soaked, the water has no vertical pathway to escape, and flooding is inevitable.”
As the system do not rely on gravity, it works well in any direction. It also has a built-in vertical heat escape mechanism, since many current cooling systems dissipate heat across a single plane.
Scientists claimed, “Further demonstration still needs to be done to get this into a form that can be used in today’s electronics.”