Fractal Antenna Systems, Inc., a Boston area firm, today disclosed patent filing for a breakthrough technology in heat transfer and dissipation. Heat transfer is a basic and key technology for making things work and work better, from computers to video game consoles to refrigerators, by taking heat away from where it is not wanted or selectively placing it where it is needed.
The technology uses fractal shapes, a complex pattern built up from repeated and scaled repetitions of a simpler one, to make infrared (IR) resonators that are broadband. Infrared is the part of the spectrum where heat gives off most of its energy and has the same properties as microwave, except at shorter wavelengths.
By juxtaposing the fractal resonators very close to one another in a layered grid, they generate “surface” waves that can transfer IR energy. This fractal “metasurface” metamaterial thus can take heat away from one spot, and almost instantaneously, transfer the energy elsewhere.
One of the daunting problems with the continuing miniaturization of electronic circuitry is the heat generation problem. A highly efficient, solid state heat sink like that described in the above technology, could be the answer. And it's born in the USA! To read the rest of the article, click here.