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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 19 2019, @08:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the does-it-also-make-the-room-darker? dept.

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.]


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  • (Score: 2) by SemperOSS on Wednesday February 20 2019, @11:45AM (1 child)

    by SemperOSS (5072) on Wednesday February 20 2019, @11:45AM (#803949)

    The article is not saying anything about where the energy goes, but as conservation of energy is still a given, there are only a few possibilities:

    1. The energy is emitted by the LED somewhere else, much like a Peltier heat pump with a hot and a cold side
    2. The LED works as an electrical generator and converts the heat into electrical energy
    3. The circuit gets heavier as the LED converts the energy into matter (E = MC2)

    You guess is as good as mine.

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    I don't need a signature to draw attention to myself.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @05:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @05:50PM (#804067)

    you could make "IR absorbing" solar panels then use the generated electricity to make a "nasty hot photon"
      (a laser) beam and point it into deep space.
    the aliens would probably complain to the inter-galactic department responsible for managing un-natural light contamination and would
    send a delegation to suggest a compromise by pointing the beam at our sun.
    the project leader of "earth-icebox" would probably complain but after doing the math would realize that even though the added beam to the suns core would heat up the sun and increase its (de)evolution it would also increase the in-falling IR which is powering the beam anyways.
    the sticking point is then that the sun, being huge would radiate naturally in all directions thus, the un-natural light contamination would be moot ...