The Need

Conventional thermal management methods such as air-cooling and liquid cooling methods commonly used for electronics present in laptops, desktop computers, and smaller electronic configurations show limitations when scaled up for complex electronics architectures. High-power and high-voltage electronics in many applications generate heat in significantly larger amounts, and conventional techniques cannot reliably cool them. Consequently, more innovative approaches such as MHD are used in complex, next-generation semiconductor devices, power modules, and other electronic equipment used in complex applications such as data centers.

The Technology

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) pump-type cooling systems in current use tend to suffer from limitations around the complexity and higher cost of mechanical pumps and other ancillaries used for circulating high thermal conductivity coolant. This invention develops a novel approach using liquid metal coolant in combination with an integrated inductor and permanent or electro-magnets to generate the necessary magnetic fields and transfer heat to the coolant. Using magnetic cores clamped to the liquid channels eliminates the need for ancillary equipment, such as auxiliary power supplies and additional pumping equipment, thereby making this design more cost-effective and simpler to integrate. Additionally, the design can match the flow rate of the coolant to that of the load by using an inductor where higher loads increase the magnitude of the current, the flow rate, and heat transfer capabilities.

Commercial Applications

The most common applications where this invention could have immediate use are electric and other vehicular/locomotor applications with high-power electronics extensively. Other applications for consideration include data centers, clustered computing environments such as high-performance computing centers, unmanned systems, and switching and control equipment used in smart grid architectures.

Benefits/Advantages

The multi-modal approach enables circuit connections in serial and parallel configurations, single and multiple channels, and specially shaped magnetic cores. Additionally, it provides good load-matching capability, eliminates large magnetic components, and reduces costs by replacing auxiliary power supplies and mechanical pumps with an inductor-based approach.