Researchers at the University of Michigan ran a light emitting diode (LED) with electrodes reversed in order to cool another device mere nanometers away. The approach could lead to new solid-state cooling technology for future microprocessors, which will have so many transistors packed into a small space that current methods can’t remove heat quickly enough.
This could turn out to be important for future smartphones and other computers. With more computing power in smaller and smaller devices, removing the heat from the microprocessor is beginning to limit how much power can be squeezed into a given space.
https://www.rtoz.org/2019/02/18/running-an-led-in-reverse-could-cool-future-computers/
[How does this compare to a Peltier device?
--Ed.]
(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday February 19 2019, @09:20PM (2 children)
Interesting.
So essentially it's a solar panel, but tuned for infrared (heat)?
The article is scant on details, but I was picturing something similar to the Peltier effect where the heat is moved to another location. In this case, the heat is not moved, but rather converted to electricity?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @09:27PM (1 child)
yes. the photon's charge gets carried out as electrons. this freaking awesome insight could just make the way for viable 3D computing structures in which waste heat converts back to charge.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Wednesday February 20 2019, @10:57AM
if only efficiency didnt matter..