UCLA Engineering-led Team of Researchers Awarded $3.8 million
to Conduct Research on Electronics Cooling
An interdisciplinary team of researchers
led by UCLA professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering,
Sungtaek Ju recently received a $3.8 million award from the
Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) to conduct
innovative research and development in the area of electronics
cooling for the next three years. DARPA is an agency of the
U.S. Department of Defense responsible for the development of
new technology for use by the military.
Other participants of the research
program include Ivan Catton, professor of mechanical and aerospace
engineering; Bruce Dunn, professor of materials science and
engineering; Massoud Kaviany, professor of mechanical engineering
at the University of Michigan; and engineers from Advanced Cooling
Technologies, Inc., based in Pennsylvania.
As electronic system technology
advances, there has been increasing pressure on the thermal
engineering and heat rejection technologies used. Despite efforts
to achieve dramatic reductions in power consumption in specific
electronic devices, the need for performance inevitably leads
to operation of most electronic systems at the limits of the
available thermal management technology.
DARPA has asked the research team,
based at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied
Science, to come up with technology that would enhance the cooling
of electronic devices to improve the performance of their military
electronics. The RF and microwave circuit that is used in constructing
radars and communications devices are the primary applications
for the military and can be air, ground or sea based. The new
cooling system created will ultimately help military electronics
in these areas to respond better, more quickly and more efficiently.
The overall goal of the new research
program is the creation of a thin, lightweight substrate dubbed
thermal ground planes (TGPs) with the thermal conductivity at
least 100 times higher than those of common copper alloy substrates
used in these applications. TGPs will be particularly important
for enhancing existing systems that are highly constrained in
size and weight, including air-borne electronic radar arrays
and other avionics.
By working with a premier electronics
cooling technology manufacturing company, the UCLA-led team
will also rapidly transition breakthrough fundamental research
into commercial technology. The new technology will enable a
new generation of high-performance, integrated systems to operate
at high power density without problems from temperature gradients,
increased weight, or added complexity.
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