4 ms·

You could switch the thermal sink between multiple radiators to give each one a lower duty cycle.

by c22 3y ago

dragontamer 3y ago
Heat naturally flows to the lowest temperature object connected by the lowest thermal-resistance (or highest thermal conductivity). If you have a radiator at 80C, and a 2nd radiator at 60C and both are connected to HotPlate-X, the heat will naturally find itself going to the 60C, while the 80C will more naturally find its own heat radiating out to the environment quicker. You don't need a thermal-semiconductor to just have heat flow around. That's just... heat physics. -------- There seems to be some practical applications for this new "thermal semiconductor". Though the next questions are that of cost, performance, etc. etc.
- jfoutz 3y ago
  it (the insulator) seems very small. I think, a lot of chips have multiple temperature sensors across the whole chip to decide when to clock down. If I have 4 cores, and 1 is going flat out, I could see insulating the unused (or lesser used) cores. The idea being give the hot part the full cooling capacity. That seems like the obvious idea. But maybe I'm misunderstanding or forgetting something fundamental.
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    > The idea being give the hot part the full cooling capacity. Isn't it also to prevent the hot part from heating the other, cooler parts? This could be used to give each part of a CPU its own independent cooling. That'd be pretty cool.
  - yetihehe 3y ago
    You can use this to equalize temperatures on one chip, using it like a changeable heat-shield, so instead of hotspots, you artifically keep some heat from escaping from colder areas too fast which could prevent stress induced cracking. It's better to keep whole chip at 70*C than a one small area at 70 and other areas at 30. Then when heat load from that one small spot vanishes or is moved to other spot, you can change your heat mask on the fly.

You could switch the thermal sink between multiple radiators to give each one a lower duty cycle.

by c22 3y ago

You could switch the thermal sink between multiple radiators to give each one a lower duty cycle.

Heat naturally flows to the lowest temperature object connected by the lowest thermal-resistance (or highest thermal conductivity). If you have a radiator at 80C, and a 2nd radiator at 60C and both are connected to HotPlate-X, the heat will naturally find itself going to the 60C, while the 80C will more naturally find its own heat radiating out to the environment quicker. You don't need a thermal-semiconductor to just have heat flow around. That's just... heat physics. -------- There seems to be some practical applications for this new "thermal semiconductor". Though the next questions are that of cost, performance, etc. etc.

jfoutz 3y ago
it (the insulator) seems very small. I think, a lot of chips have multiple temperature sensors across the whole chip to decide when to clock down. If I have 4 cores, and 1 is going flat out, I could see insulating the unused (or lesser used) cores. The idea being give the hot part the full cooling capacity. That seems like the obvious idea. But maybe I'm misunderstanding or forgetting something fundamental.
- LoganDark 3y ago
  > The idea being give the hot part the full cooling capacity. Isn't it also to prevent the hot part from heating the other, cooler parts? This could be used to give each part of a CPU its own independent cooling. That'd be pretty cool.
- yetihehe 3y ago
  You can use this to equalize temperatures on one chip, using it like a changeable heat-shield, so instead of hotspots, you artifically keep some heat from escaping from colder areas too fast which could prevent stress induced cracking. It's better to keep whole chip at 70*C than a one small area at 70 and other areas at 30. Then when heat load from that one small spot vanishes or is moved to other spot, you can change your heat mask on the fly.