Bio-inspired Passive Skin Cooling for Handheld Microelectronics Devices

Abstract

Increasing functionality demands more heat dissipation from the skin of handheld devices. The maximum amount of heat that can be dissipated passively, prescribed by the natural convection and blackbody radiation theories, is becoming the bottleneck. In this letter, we propose a novel bio-inspirited technique that may overcome this passive cooling limit. It is made possible by using a biomimetic skin capable of perspiration on demand. The key component of the biomimetic skin is a thin layer of temperature sensitive hydro gel (TSHG). The TSHG layer can sweat the skin with moisture when the skin temperature is higher than the TSHG’s lower critical solution temperature (LCST), and thus boost the heat dissipation rate through evaporation. The TSHG layer can absorb moisture at low temperature to replenish. With this novel passive cooling technology, a handheld device can have nearly four times more power beyond the traditional passive cooling limit, and may be powerful enough to run a desktop operation system like a full functional personal computer.