As made evident by the shrinking sizes of iPods, laptops and digital cameras, small is clearly in. But the emergence of such gadgets tends to pose problems of efficiency and cooling within their tiny confines.
A two-day workshop at Duke's Erwin Mills last Thursday and Friday, "Nanotechnology and the Emerging Global Knowledge Economy: Challenges and Opportunities," focused on the advent of nanotechnology in a global and regional context.
Technologies explored at Friday's workshop on product development, which targeted members of the Duke community and technology insiders, included machinery for the automotive and biomedical fields, among others.
Jesko von Windheim-CEO of Nextreme Thermal Solutions, Inc., located in Research Triangle Park-discussed his company's solutions to the limited size of nanotechnologies.
"We work on semiconductor processing, electronic packaging and especially thermoelectric material engineering," von Windheim said.
The company's major product, a "paper-thin heat pump," can lower temperatures by up to 40 degrees Celsius across its two sides. He described the device, which can be used in lasers and other small electronics, as "a solid-state refrigerator the size of a piece of confetti."
The multifunctional paper-thin heat pump performs the function of a power generator when placed next to a heat source, von Windheim added.
In order to meet the demands of customers, new technologies must be developed to offset the disadvantages of small products, he said.
"Because the market trend is making things smaller and more packed together, the dense power dissipation creates very high temperatures," von Windheim said, adding that such problems have been addressed on a larger scale.
In computers, for example, the dual-core chip was employed not to improve performance but rather to combat the problem of overheating, he said, noting that these challenges promise large rewards in the end.
"Some companies tell us, 'If you solve the thermal problem, our markets will expand 10 times,'" von Windheim said.
In the future, the company plans to explore the medical application of its thermal devices.
To reduce epileptic seizures, implants are sometimes introduced into the human cortex, but conventional probes are often oversized or too hot for appropriate use, von Windheim said. Small cooling devices can be used to decrease temperatures by 5 to 10 degrees Celsius by attachment to the implanted probe.
Several speakers discussed the potential role of North Carolina's workforce and technological sectors.
Lance Kress, senior vice president of High Performance Coatings-based in Whitsett, N.C.-discussed nanotechnology at his firm.
The company manufactures nano-coating, which provides heat and corrosion resistance for materials used in aerospace, automotive and medical engineering.
One of the company's tools provides wing protection for aerospace vehicles from rain by delaying the onset of buildup on the wing, for instance, Kress said.
HPC recently moved to North Carolina in response to a growing customer base on the eastern United States and in Europe. The available workforce-including many laid-off workers from the textile industry-also attracted HPC, he said.
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