A team of researchers from the University of Dallas are in the process of establishing that a new material could cool electronic devices such as computers and cell phones in an effective manner thus increasing their performance and life.
When an electronic device computes data or performs an important function, it generates heat. However in the long run, as more heat is generated, the performance of the device is affected. In order to make the devices run longer and faster it is important to remove the heat generated at earlier stages.
Traditionally, silicon has been used as a semiconducting material in electronics. Latest research on graphene has established that it is an excellent material which can be used in electronics. However, it has been found out that graphene conducts heat 20 times more than silicon. Though most of the electronic devices such as laptops and cell phones come with an internal fan or other cooling devices to remove the heat, it is important that the cooling process starts at the chip level. This research team has been carrying out experiments with engineered graphene to study how heat gets conducted in the material and how the material can be manipulated for use in regular electronic devices. The team used a laser beam at the centre of graphene after which it measured the difference in temperature from the middle of the graphene structure and its edges.
The National Science Foundation sponsored the research along with NRF of Korea, Office of Naval Research, National Natural Science Foundation of China and Semiconductor Research Corporation.