How to keep your electronic devices from overheating and exploding, according to University of Virginia engineers
Researchers in the United States say they have discovered a revolutionary way to keep electronic devices cooler for longer.
Researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA) say they have found a way to get electronic devices to stay cooler for longer, in a development that could have major benefits for key, everyday technology.
Crystal cooling for modern tech
In a paper published recently in the scientific journal Nature, the team of engineers revealed that it has harnessed a type of crystal known as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) to make heat dissipate more quickly.
Normally, heat is transferred through solid material through collisions between heat particles known as phonons. It is a slow-speed process that can allow high temperatures to build up in modern technology such as smartphones and computers.
“Devices generate heat as they work, and if they can’t cool down fast enough, they slow down, lose efficiency or even break,” says a UVA press release.
However, heat transfer can be sped up by channelling the high temperatures through hBN, the researchers say.
“Like a high-speed train”
“Typically, heat in electronics spreads like ripples in a pond - dissipating outward but losing energy along the way,” UVA says. “In contrast, the team’s method transforms heat into tightly channeled waves that travel efficiently across long distances, more like a high-speed train racing along a track.”
“We’re rethinking how we handle heat,” said Patrick Hopkins, a UVA professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who is one of the paper’s co-authors. “Instead of letting it slowly trickle away, we’re directing it.”
hBN is also more compact than current bulky heat-dispersion systems like fans and liquid cooling, the UVA team says.
They add that their breakthrough could have a revolutionary impact on the advanced technology we depend upon on a daily basis.
“Could change how we design everything”
In addition to offering the potential for phones and computers that “don’t overheat [and] could run faster without draining battery life”, hBN could pave the way for cooler, more efficient electric vehicle batteries, data centers, medical technology, and more.
“This discovery could change how we design everything from processors to spacecrafts,” Hopkins concludes.
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