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All-in-one design integrates microfluidic cooling into electronic chips

Miniaturized electronic devices generate a lot of heat, which must be dissipated to maintain performance. A microfluidic system designed to be an integral part of a microchip demonstrates exceptional cooling performance.
  1. Tiwei Wei

    1. Tiwei Wei is at the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, Leuven 3001, Belgium, and at KU Leuven, Leuven.

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An energy-efficient way to improve the performance of electronics systems would be to integrate microfluidic cooling channels into chips, to prevent overheating. However, state-of-the-art microfluidic cooling systems have previously been designed and constructed separately from electronic chips, preventing the channels from being integrated into circuits to provide direct cooling at hotspots. Because such integration greatly increases the complexity of chip fabrication, it would potentially increase the cost. Writing in Nature, van Erp et al.1 report an electronic device designed to have an integrated microfluidic cooling system that closely aligns with the electronic components, and which is constructed using a single, low-cost process.

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Nature 585, 188-189 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02503-1

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