Over the years, smartphones have evolved to be very smart indeed. In fact, there are many functions these newer phones can do which make their owners much happier, offer a more productive and functional device and generally help to keep us all far more connected. That said, there’s a price to pay that comes with such ‘smarts’ and that tends to be battery life. The smarter (and smaller, thinner and lighter) devices become, the more battery hogging a device becomes. Not to mention, the faster and more powerful the processor needs to be to account for all the multi-tasking. With such battery usage and processing power all tucked up within such a small frame, things under the hood can get a little hot at times. Those processors need to stay cool to maintain their performance and this seems to be an issue which needs to be further addressed as smartphones evolve.
Until now, the one method which has been used is that of heat pipes. These small pipes are in place within the device and contain a small amount of liquid which is designed to detract heat away from the SoC. Although, if the recent troubles regarding the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor are anything to go by, keeping processors running cooler is becoming much more of an issue in spite of the use of heat pipes. Well, Fujitsu this week has unveiled what they claim is the next evolution in keeping mobile processors from overheating.
Building on the use of heat pipes, Fujitsu have developed a loop heat pipe which is less than 1mm thick. This loop pipe works in a similar fashion by detracting the heat away from the SoC, but what makes it different is that due to the looped nature, the heat can be easily transferred away from the heat source (processor) to a cooler part of the device and then more effectively dissipated. Furthermore, the design of Fujitsu’s looping system means the loop pipe can rest directly on the SoC itself. It is argued, this placing of the loop will offer even more ability to detract the heat from the heat source, due to its close and direct contact. In fact, Fujitsu claims the new system can offer up to five times more heat transfer than current methods. You can see a prime example of how the concept works in the first image below and an example of what the loop pipe will look like in the second image. The third image shows an infrared image of the tech in operation and how the heat is moved and eventually evaporated. Let us know what you think.
