US funds Kiwi tech pioneers
Air Force’s $250k will help study aiming to boost computer and laser technology
The United States Air Force has pumped $250,000 into an innovative Kiwi study that could boost computing and laser technology. A pioneering project being led by materials scientist Dr Fei Yang, of Waikato University’s School of Engineering, will explore how combining copper and diamond can create high rates of heat transfer, to help cool down electronic devices with graphic and central processing units.
After assessing a white paper Yang submitted on the project, the US Air Force awarded him nearly $250,000.
A breakthrough could tackle a pressing problem for power-hungry electronic devices which are being worked increasingly harder, but can’t work to capacity if the units within them expand and overheat.
The secret could lie in copperdiamond composites, which are synthesised from copper and artificial diamond powders and have a potential to have very high thermal conductivity.
Yang believed the composites could prove to be the next generation of materials for heat sinks, which computers and other electronic devices use to keep cool.
When we use devices, the computer chips in them heat and expand, as do the heat sinks they’re attached to. But because the chips and sinks are made of different materials, they expand at different rates, degrading the connection.
Being able to “tune” the rate of expansion of the heat sink to match that of the chip using the new composites would maintain a good connection between the two, he said.
Yang said the technology could have a future in everything from the high-performance semiconductors found in amplifiers and supercomputers to high-power laser diodes and photonics devices.
The extra heat-conducting power could even be 50 per cent better than technology that’s currently used.
But first Yang needed to solve a problem about the way copper and diamond interact — they naturally repel each other when heat is applied.
Yang has come up with a way that could make the metal and mineral stick — something called “wettability”.
His new project aims to better control the interface between diamond and copper — particularly during the manufacturing process — and ultimately overcome the technical challenges of producing composites with high thermal conductivity.
The main experiments will be done at Waikato University, with further tests being done by collaborators in Germany and Australia.
Yang said the US Air Force came on board after technical staff reviewed a detailed proposal he submitted. “[It] has a history of supporting new and innovative ideas.”
He expected to complete the project within two years, with the hope of pushing it further with possible funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Meanwhile, a Kiwi company that has developed noise-suppressing technology for drones has been signed by a US tech accelerator.
Dotterel has now become the first NZ firm to be accepted to TechStars.
Dotterel will participate in Techstars’ first Asia-Pacific programme, to be held in Adelaide from mid-July. The three-month programme will focus on defenceapplicable technologies.