Nanoplasmonic Device with Nanoscale Cooling

Applications: Software/hardware industry, semiconductor industry, spectroscopy, optical data storage, solar-cells and medical applications.

Problem: Nanoplasmonic applications including magnetic memory, and photovoltaic cells make use of an optical spot smaller than the diffraction limit. This can result in substantial localized heating. Heat can be removed with a bulk metallic layer, but this can result in general heating by spreading the heat and may as well change the near- field characteristics of the device. In general, it may be difficult to obtain satisfactory cooling in an efficient and compact manner.

Technology:

This specific technology offers a novel nanoplasmonic device with nanoscale cooling affect providing satisfactory cooling in an efficient and compact manner for various products such as in hard disk drives in computing and sensor systems. The device comprises a unique “nanoplasmonic layer” having a heating side and a cooling side and also includes a cooling structure adjacent to the cooling side of the “layer”. The localization of these cooling structures is engineered for rapid cooling and focused cooling effects-minimizing any heating related performance loss in real life applications. The overall design of this novel device enables to remove heat from the layer effectively in a compact manner. This technology will play a crucial role in breaking the technical limits that are encountered in various products. For example, a successful integration of this technology with hard disc drives will extend the annual increase of data storage capacity at or above 40%, which has been slowing due to the superparamagnetic limit.

Advantages:

  • To increase the data storage capacity at or above 40 %, annually
  • High performance
  • Rapid cooling
  • Compact manner 

Keywords: Nanoscale Cooling, Heat Remover, Hard Disc Drives, Nanoplasmonic