Heat diodes give thermal computing a fighting chance
By Darren Murph 
posted October 19th 2009 9:57AM
posted October 19th 2009 9:57AM
Anyone who has tried their hand at overclocking recognizes just how evil waste heat is, and we're guessing that one Wataru Kobayashi at Waseda University in Japan understands explicitly. He, along with a few colleagues, has recently devised a new diode that allows heat current to travel in one direction but not in the other. The breakthrough essentially paves the way for thermal computing to actually take off, with obvious applications including heat sinks for microprocessors. Kobayashi, who may or may not be able to eat a dozen hot dogs per minute in his spare time, also hopes that his discovery will lead to a thermal transistor, thermal logic gates and a thermal memory. The future's yours, friend.
Thermal Underwear is what I am interested in currently.
can I get this in my next round of gaming consoles please?
you want your PS4 to come with a pair of long-johns?
ooooh ooohhh, hot hot hot....down there
Kobayashi maru
I tried to think of a joke using this, but failed.
I hope that later generations have more success.
"Heat diodes give thermal computing a fighting chance" ????
They are all supposed to die!!!!!
Kobayashi made them do it!
7egend, i didn't think of that use! does this mean it could be used for insulating things like fridges and ovens?? you be able to keep an icecube contained for days in summer without it melting?
This is what is needed to bring thermoelectrics into the mainstream. An array of these could provide low thermal conductivity to an element with high electrical conductivity. AWESOME!!!!
How about....thermal detonator?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but does this mean that it might be possible for us to directly power devices like watches, phones, etc. through our own body heat? Obviously their circuitry would be thermal rather than electronic, but this would be a huge leap forward. The efficiency of electrical generators (particularly things like steam turbines) could be vastly improved too.
hmm, sounds like it... thermal energy takes way longer to transfer... so your watch would show you the time it was like a few hours before you see it :) hehe
the picture should have had some pics of DeNiro from the gun battle in Heat.
Actually, it sounds good on paper but the real deal is how BIG is it and if it can be miniaturized to at least the mili(meter) level.
Yeah, thats the problem with Peltier plates, they dont miniaturise very effectively.
Kobayashi knows who keyser soze is
Isn't this tech the same as pelters?
Peltier devices use electricity to transfer the heat, making one side very cold, and the other hot. The problem is that with the use of electricity, they output additional heat. So in the example of, say, a CPU heatsink, sure it'd keep the CPU cold, but the heatsink itself would have to be able to deal with the additional heat, or it'd eventually build up and heat up the CPU MORE than if the peltier wasn't there. Plus, with CPU's, it's possible that the peltier could create temperatures below room temp, and cause condensation on the chip. Which, as we all know, water and electronics don't mix. Also, if a peltier fails, it isn't a particularly good conductor of heat, essentially making it worse than useless.
However, these "heat diodes", paired with a peltier device, could be very useful because it would be much harder for the heat to build up in the CPU. Sure, the heatsink might get very hot, but who cares?
Also, thermal computing could be quite an interesting prospect. Additional computing power generated by the waste heat in a computer. I can't imagine using it by itself - it'd be quite impractical to use electricity to generate heat for the computer, but utilizing the wasted heat would be interesting.
Thermal peltier rather - which was pretty popular like 7 years ago......
It's a great idea to merge a material with high thermal conductivity at low temperature and a material with low thermal conductivity at high temperature. If one part of the element gets hot (high temp), it would tend to flow to the cooler part of the element very rapidly due to the cooler part having a exceptionally high thermal conductivity at that cool temperature. Pretty much like how electric currents would go the short circuit path rather than the resistive path.
Anyway, thermal logic gates? I guess that's impractical right? It would be darn slow given the intrinsic speed at which heat conducts compared to electric currents. Imagine thermal D-flip-flops with clock "signals" driven by heat flux.
I don't think this can be used for cooling CPUs. It's surely only useful in things that change temperature. For example you might use it to make a passive outdoor fridge - the heat escapes at night, cooling the contents, and in the day the hot external temperatures can't heat up the contents.
Surely the applications for this are endless:
Tent skins, thermos flasks, clothing, ice rinks, air con, spacecraft.
I'd be interested to know the effectiveness and tolerances of this stuff...
I doubt heat can travel fast enough to be used in computing, but then again, I'm no expert.
We need to get Joey Chestnut involved in thermal semiconductor design.