the last year has been a big one for thermal management breakthrough though most of do not involve traditional fans, heat sinks and thermal interface material. phononic raised $44.5m to develop their solid state cooling. basf launched their own magentocaloric cooling technology at the consumer electronics show. and even ge has successfully demonstrated magentic refrigeration. now louisiana state university (lsu) has released news that they too have a breakthrough in solid state cooling and yes once again, it involves magnets.
the piece from lsu states best what is happening (see the full article on lsu's web site here):
refrigeration and air conditioning may become more efficient and environmentally friendly thanks to the patent-pending work of lsu physicists. the team of researchers led by lsu physics professor shane stadler has discovered a breakthrough magnetocaloric material that may change the energy industry, including air conditioning and food refrigeration. “the world refrigeration market is expected to increase by about $7-8 billion by 2018,” stadler said. therefore, his breakthrough has a significant economic impact as well as an impact on the energy industry and environment. stadler’s research focuses on the next generation of magnetic cooling technologies, which are simpler in design, quieter and more environmentally friendly than conventional compressed-gas systems currently used.
lsu's team is working with magnetocaloric made of gadolinium that seems to solve issue that ge and other teams have been facing in bring magentic based cooling to commercial applications. the goal here is quite impressive as, dr. stadler notes, since successful implementations of such technology not only may create new, innovative products, but will also reduce energy consumption and reduce flurocarbon emissions from refrigeration of many types.
for the electronics cooling space, the benefits are being able to cool all those watts from cpu's, gpu's and fpga's crammed into increasingly smaller systems.one potential problem that is not talked about in these new developments is that many of them use rare earth metals.
in the case of the lsu teams discovery, gadolinium, which tends to be expensive. though in the 10 year time in which the lsu team thinks it may come to market, perhaps alternatives with the same properties may be used. in the case of ge, they are using giant magentocaloric materials for their product.
read more on this topic at:
lsu physicist discovers new material that may change the way we cool our homes, food and cars
the new cool: lsu physicist discovers new material set to change cooling industry
ge's magnetic refrigeration, not just a lab experiment
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