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MAE
SEMINAR SERIES
Remarks
on the Limits of Air-Cooling of Electronics and their Impact on
Research Enabling the Transition to Liquid Cooling ;
Thermo-Fluids
Research Opportunities at The National Science Foundation
Thursday,
February 16, 2006, 1pm
Phillips
Hall 7th Floor Conference Room #736
Alfonso
Ortega
Program
Director: Thermal Transport and Thermal Processing Program
The
National Science Foundation
James
Birle Professor of Energy Technology
Department
of Mechanical Engineering
Villanova
University, Villanova, Pennsylvania
In the first part of
this talk, I will attempt to put into context the evolution of cooling
technology for electronic equipment for the past twenty five years and
the research that it has motivated. During this period, much
research has been performed on the thermo-physics of air-cooling
technology, and I will try to highlight the motivation for the work and
the outcome of some of the key research. Over the past decade,
and in particular in the past five years, it has become clear that the
demand for electrical performance and the resulting chip level power
continues to increase, at an increasing rate, resulting in chip level
heat fluxes that cannot be handled with air alone. These trends
are disconcerting to chip architects and designers, but have created
exciting opportunities for “thermo-fluid architects and
designers.” In that context, I will describe recent research in
liquid cooling in my research group in exotic milli-channel heat
sinks. I will close with a brief discussion of topical areas of
research supported by NSF that are motivated by the need for better
chip level cooling.
In the second part of
this talk, I will briefly describe the programs within the Engineering
Division of Chemical and Transport Systems (CTS) that have interest in
Thermo-Fluids related topics, with emphasis on the Thermal Transport
and Thermal Processing Program. Examples of relevant topics and
currently funded research will be described. In addition, I will
briefly discuss NSF-wide initiatives, in particular in the Nanoscale
Science and Engineering Priority area (NIRT, NER, NSEC) in which
thermo-fluids research is relevant. Finally, I will describe
integrative educational and research programs for undergraduates (REU),
teacher training (RET), and transformative graduate education (IGERT)
that are not well known by some engineering communities.
Alfonso Ortega was
appointed Program Director of the Thermal Transport and Thermal
Processing Program at The National Science Foundation in 2004. He
was a member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories,
Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the Fluid and Thermal Sciences Division
from 1978-81, and in the Geothermal Research Division from
1986-88. From 1988 to 2005 he was on the faculty of the
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at The University of
Arizona in Tucson where he directed the Experimental and Computational
Heat Transfer Laboratory. In August 2005, he was named the James
R. Birle Professor of Energy Technology at Villanova University.