2. Cooling and Waste Heat Energy
• Microelectronics
• Industrial Processes
• A/C Applications
• Recent News
– Sandia’s Cooler Technology
– Phononic Device’s
• Doubled efficiency of thermo-electric devices
3.
4.
5. Brain-like devices and more
• Neuromoprhic chips
– 2012: Single chips with 10 billion synapses and 1
million neuron
– robots of various kinds including robotic cars are a
large market later this decade
• HP seeks trillions of inexpensive sensors
– visual: Tiny lens free pinhead camera arrays
• Micron scale claytronics from Intel and
Carnegie Mellon
8. Antenna news
• Mass production of maximally tiny wireless
antennas
– imprint technology for small on board antennas
• Optical antennas with gaps below 10 nm
– band gap determines sensitivity. gaps as low as 3 nm.
• T-shirt antenna
– wearable antennas embedded in t-shirts and other
materials.
9. Nanowires, nano-electronics
• combining top-down and bottom-up
approaches for cheap 3d nanostructures
• coated nanowires dramatically more efficient
and sensitive
– 90-fold increase in photosensitivity
• Semiconductor nanowire ultraviolet laser
technology
12. Picosecond switch
• A high temperature superconductor can now
be switched on and off trillion of times a
second
– Switching by high voltage terahertz pulses
– Temporary disruption of superconductor field
15. Moore’s law ends beyond exascale?
• We will hit the end of Moore's law in mid-
2020 with 7 nanometer lithography chips.
– spintronics may not be ready in time
• Intel has 7 nm tech by 2016
• IBM has nanowire circuits below 3 nm
• Direct self-assembly can go to 1-2 nm
• Quantum dots computation
Hinweis der Redaktion
Phononic Devices materials and devices are expected to more than double thermal-electric efficiency -- compared to conventional thermoelectrics -- for the interval between room temperature, which is 73F, and 248F. At wider temperature differentials they indicate they can increase from the usual 10% to 30% conversion. This is expected to result in a $/W energy savings of 75% for power generation and 60% for cooling, respectively.
in this diagram of the Sandia Cooler, heat is transferred to the rotating cooling fins. Rotation of the cooling fins eliminates the thermal bottleneck typically associated with a conventional CPU cooler.A Fundamentally New Approach to Air-cooled Heat Exchangers (48 pages)“In a conventional CPU cooler, the heat transfer bottleneck is the boundary layer of “dead air” that clings to the cooling fins. With the Sandia Cooler, heat is efficiently transferred across a narrow air gap from a stationary base to a rotating structure. ““The normally stagnant boundary layer of air enveloping the cooling fins is subjected to a powerful centrifugal pumping effect, causing the boundary layer thickness to be reduced to ten times thinner than normal. This reduction enables a dramatic improvement in cooling performance within a much smaller package.”
The performance obtained with a highly unoptimized version 1 prototype device already represents a major advance in a technology area of fundamental importance that has changed little in the past 40 years. The potential implications in the U.S. energy sector (air conditioners, heat pumps, and refrigeration equipment)amount to a ~5% reduction (future optimized devices could get almost 30% improvement) in electrical power consumption, significantly increased grid operating margin, and significant reduction in heat-wave generated load spikes. The potential implications in the information technology sector (desktop computers, high-performance graphics cards, server farms, and data centers) are also very large and center on resolving the thermal brick wall problem, which has prevented CPUs from advancing beyond clock speeds of ~3 GHz, and emerging concerns about the energy consumption of data centers, half of which is associated with cooling. The most immediate priority for future work is construction of the version 2 prototype, which is predicted to reduce thermal resistance to ~0.1 C/W.
In 2015, the neuromorphic chips are targeted to have 100 times more capability. The military is developing neuromorphic chips for autonomous, unmanned, robotic systems and natural human-machine interfaces and diverse sensory and information integration applications in the defense and civilian sector.http://www.stanford.edu/group/brainsinsilicon/pdf/05_journ_SciAm_NeurmorphChips.pdfNeuromorphic engineering or neuromorphic computing is a concept developed by Carver Mead, in the late 1980s, describing the use of very-large-scale integration (VLSI) systems containing electronic analog circuits to mimic neuro-biological architectures present in the nervous system. In recent times the term neuromorphic has been used to describe analog, digital, and mixed-mode analog/digital VLSI and software systems that implement models of neural systems (for perception, motor control, or sensory processing).Google robotic self driving cars have already logged over 140,000 miles. http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/10/google-has-robotic-self-driving-cars.htmlHP makes accelerometers 1000 times more sensitive than conventional ones. There sensors require < 50 milliwats. . HP envisions 1 trillion sensors in use around the world, creating a central nervous system in the form of a complex, far-flung sensor network that could monitor climate change, help with oil and gas discovery and seismic monitoring, and likely be useful in monitoring the health of the United States' roughly 600 000 bridges.http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/02/hp-vision-of-trillion-sensors-around.htmlClaytronicshttp://nextbigfuture.com/2010/05/1mm-diameter-claytronic-robot.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJEMfAg5l2w&feature=player_detailpage
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/new-brain-type-device-with-human-like.htmlMemory model of the synaptic device. Higher repetition rate of information input causes formation of long-term memory (red line), while lower repetition rate forms short-term memory (blue line) and does not cause formation of long-term memory.The memory level is basically unchanged by the initial few inputs, and corresponds to sensory memory. The results of the device operation are in good agreement with this memory model, showing that the synaptic device can accurately reproduce the multistore model of human memory proposed in psychology.Artificial reproduction of synapses, which are key constituent elements in neural circuits, is indispensable for neural network systems and brain-type computers. Conventional artificial synapses, which had been realized by complicated circuits and software, can only operate as designed in advance. Because the new synaptic device will enable diverse operations without prior operational design, it is expected to contribute to the construction of artificial intelligence which becomes wiser with experience, in precisely the same way as humans.http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat3054.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/nmat3054-s2.pdf
Engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to mass-produce antennas so small that they approach the fundamental minimum size limit for their bandwidth, or data rate, of operation.Custom antennaes to match any application. Very applicable to embedding in sensor networks and consumer devices. Optical antennas are import to high resolution spectroscopy, on device light sensing, opto-electronics, sub-wavelength light sources and near-field scanning microscopy.http://www.seas.harvard.edu/crozier/PDFs/WenqiZhu_Small2011_suppl_info.pdf Wearable antennas could be the future of wireless technology and have important applications in communications, security and healthcare, but as they are worn on the body it is particularly important to understand their performance. The human body absorbs electromagnetic signals and so there are concerns that the emitted signal from the antenna could suffer from power losses if worn too close.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/combining-top-down-and-bottom-up.htmlhttp://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/nl2011824/suppl_file/nl2011824_si_001.pdfOne approach to making three-dimensional nanostructures — a top-down approach — is called phase-shift lithography, in which a two-dimensional mask shapes the intensity of light shining onto a layer of photoresist material (in the same way a photographic negative controls the amount of light reaching different areas of a print). The photoresist is altered only in the areas reached by the light. However, this approach requires very precisely manufactured phase masks, which are expensive and time-consuming to make.Another method — a bottom-up approach — is to use self-assembling colloidal nanoparticles that form themselves into certain energetically favorable close-packed arrangements. These can then be used as a mask for physical deposition methods, such as vapor deposition, or etching of the surface, to produce 2-D structures, just as a stencil can be used to control where paint reaches a surface. But these methods are slow and limited by defects that can form in the self-assembly process, so although they can be used for the fabrication of 3-D structures, this is made difficult because any defects propagate through the layers.The new method is a hybrid in which the self-assembled array is produced directly on a substrate material, performing the function of a mask for the lithography process. The individual nanoparticles that assemble on the surface each act as tiny lenses, focusing the beam into an intensity pattern determined by their arrangement on the surface.The method, the authors say in their paper, "can be implemented as a novel technique to fabricate complex 3-D nanostructures in all fields of nanoscale research."Coated nanowiresNanowires have unique optical properties and are considered as important building blocks for energy harvesting applications such as solar cells. However, due to their large surface-to-volume ratios, the recombination of charge carriers through surface states reduces the carrier diffusion lengths in nanowires a few orders of magnitude,often resulting in the low efficiency (a few percent or less) of nanowire-based solar cells. Reducing the recombination by surface passivation is crucial for the realization of high-performance nanosized optoelectronic devices but remains largely unexplored. Here we show that a thin layer of amorphous silicon (a-Si) coated on a single-crystalline silicon nanowire, forming a core-shell structure in situ in the vapor-liquid-solid process, reduces the surface recombination nearly 2 orders of magnitude. Under illumination of modulated light, we measure a greater than 90-fold improvement in the photosensitivity of individual core-shell nanowires, compared to regular nanowires without shell.Simulations of the optical absorption of the nanowires indicate that the strong absorption of the a-Si shell contributes to this effect, but we conclude that the effect is mainly due to the enhanced carrier lifetime by surface passivation.Nanowire laserhttp://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/semiconductor-nanowire-ultraviolet.htmlFor information storage, the zinc oxide nanowire lasers could be used to read and process much denser data on storage media such as DVDs because the ultraviolet has shorter wavelength than other lights, such as red. For example, a DVD that would store two hours of music could store four or six hours using the new type of laser.For biology and medical therapeutics, the ultra-small laser light beam from a nanowire laser can penetrate a living cell, or excite or change its function from a bad cell to a good cell. The light could also be used to purify drinking water.For photonics, the ultraviolet light could provide superfast data processing and transmission. Reliable small ultraviolet semiconductor diode lasers may help develop ultraviolet wireless communication technology, which is potentially better than state-of-the-art infrared communication technologies used in various electronic information systems.
In this example, seen in these Scanning Electron Microscope images, a view from above (at top) shows alternating layers containing round holes and long bars. As seen from the side (lower image), the alternating shapes repeat through several layers.
The possibility to graft nano-objects directly on its surface makes graphene particularly appealing for device and sensing applications. A magnetoconductivity signal as high as 20% is found for the spin reversal, revealing the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy of the TbPc2 quantum magnets. These results depict the behavior of multiple-field-effect nanotransistors with sensitivity at the single-molecule level.
http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphoton.2011.124.htmlThis so-called terahertz pulse is an electromagnetic wave, similar to light, but with a much longer wavelength. It has an electric field that briefly destroys the coupling of the electron waves between the planes when it penetrates into the crystal. This is only successful if the electric field strength of the pulse is very high, in the order of several ten thousand volts per centimetre. And it must be short enough that it does not heat up the crystal.The experiment, which Andreas Dienst designed and carried out in Oxford, succeeded as anticipated: for the short time of less than one picosecond (10-12 seconds) as the pulse interacts with the superconductor, the coupling between the planes, and thus the superconductivity, was interrupted before subsequently returning. The superconductor does not suffer in this process and can be switched as often as one likes.
This graphic illustrates a new technology that combines a laser and electric fields to manipulate fluids and tiny particles such as bacteria, viruses and DNA for a range of potential applications from drug manufacturing to food safety. The technologies could bring innovative sensors and analytical devices for "lab-on-a-chip" applications.http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2011/LC/c1lc20208aThe new methods enables us to manipulate not only big-sized objects like droplets but also tiny DNA molecules inside droplets by using one combined technique. This can greatly enhance efficiency of lab-on-a-chip sensors.The technology also may be used as a tool for nanomanufacturing because it shows promise for the assembly of suspended particles, called colloids. The ability to construct objects with colloids makes it possible to create structures with particular mechanical and thermal characteristics to manufacture electronic devices and tiny mechanical parts.
In magnetic contrast images (top) taken by the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the bright spots are nanomagnets with their north ends pointing down (represented by red bar below) and the dark spots are north-up nanomagnets (blue).The six nanomagnets form a majority logic gate transistor, where the output on the right of the center bar is determined by the majority of three inputs on the top, left and bottom. Horizontal neighboring magnets tend to point in alternate directions, while vertical neighbors prefer to point in the same direction.Today’s silicon-based microprocessor chips rely on electric currents, or moving electrons, that generate a lot of waste heat. But microprocessors employing nanometer-sized bar magnets – like tiny refrigerator magnets – for memory, logic and switching operations theoretically would require no moving electrons.Such chips would dissipate only 18 millielectron volts of energy per operation at room temperature, the minimum allowed by the second law of thermodynamics and called the Landauer limit. That’s 1 million times less energy per operation than consumed by today’s computers.Fifty years ago, Rolf Landauer used newly developed information theory to calculate the minimum energy a logical operation, such as an AND or OR operation, would dissipate given the limitation imposed by the second law of thermodynamics. (In a standard logic gate with two inputs and one output, an AND operation produces an output when it has two positive inputs, while an OR operation produces an output when one or both inputs are positive.) That law states that an irreversible process – a logical operation or the erasure of a bit of information – dissipates energy that cannot be recovered. In other words, the entropy of any closed system cannot decrease.In today’s transistors and microprocessors, this limit is far below other energy losses that generate heat, primarily through the electrical resistance of moving electrons. However, researchers such as Bokor are trying to develop computers that don’t rely on moving electrons, and thus could approach the Landauer limit.Lambson decided to theoretically and experimentally test the limiting energy efficiency of a simple magnetic logic circuit and magnetic memory.The Landauer limit is proportional to temperature, circuits cooled to low temperatures would be even more efficient.At the moment, electrical currents are used to generate a magnetic field to erase or flip the polarity of nanomagnets, which dissipates a lot of energy. Ideally, new materials will make electrical currents unnecessary, except perhaps for relaying information from one chip to another18 meV/operation is the equivalent of powering 1000 billion-transistor 1GHz processors with under 3 watts. Remember that we need this low power to come anywhere close to matching the abilities of the brain at reasonable power levels
Having a battery that can last for 20 years because a device is made to operate cleverly to communicate over a distance of 45 kilometers across open wifi spectrum is an example of enabling technology for radically new applications.A Wimax or other longer range version of such devices could enable reliable communication across entire countries (especially with some repeaters in skyscrapers or mountain tops or nanosats or blimps.)Quantum dot switches have been created that can perform femtojoule computing operations.There is advancement on mass production of quantum dots and towards theory and experiments to develop computing around quantum dots. There was Sub-femtojoule all-optical switching using a photonic-crystal nanocavity (journal Nature Photonics (May 2010)There is progress towards femtojoule phase change memory (2009)Femtojoule operations would mean one watt for a petaflop of processing and 1000 watts for an exaflop and a megawatt for a zettaflop. 100 zettaflop supercomputers would need 100 megawatts of power.IBM is talking about getting beyond silicon with phase change memory and logic and nanophotonics (and nanoplasmonics after that).Super lower power onchip photonics could enable zettaflop supercomputers with an architecture that is relatively similar to current practice.
