As manufacturers pack an increasing amount of electronics in our mobile devices, keeping these devices cool remains a key area of focus. One cooling technology that could soon make its way into smartphones is vapour chambers. Already used in larger components such as servers or graphic cards, new advances have reduced their size to the point where they will soon be keeping our mobile devices cool to the touch.
Cooling modules have reached the point where product thickness can be no more than 0.5 or 0.6 millimeters. This in turn has peaked the interest of component manufacturers such as Japan’s Furukawa Electric or Taiwan’s Taisol Electronics who are now “aggressively developing vapor chamber solutions.”
Smartphones cooled using vapour chambers could appear as early as next year. After cooperating with one cooling module maker, Sony is reportedly considering the new technology for at least some of its high-end smartphones in 2015. Both HTC and Samsung have also reportedly received samples from cooling module makers.
Vapour chambers work by vapourizing a coolant as the device gets hotter. The molecules then condense when they find cold surfaces. This dissipates their heat load and allows them to be channeled back to the coolant reservoir. As the cycle is repeated over and over, heat is dissipated from the heat source across the cooling surface. Without moving parts, they can be very reliable.
Will cooling technology be the new must-have on our smartphones next year? Let us know what you think.
Source : DigiTimes