Miniaturized Thermal-Cooler for IC Applications, Phase I

This proposal is submitted for research on using MEMS technology to make unique, highly reliable, miniaturized capillary pumped coolers in the application of Thermal Control for Instruments (subtopic: E1.07). The proposed miniaturized thermal-cooler can be fabricated on Si wafer or directly on the back of the IC circuits. The proposed micro-cooler potentially has high mechanical reliability. The proposed micro-cooler has its own coolant supply and needs no extra coolant reservoir and supply.

Small size, low cost micro-cooler has a huge application market. It can be applied at all the micro-processors in PCs to enhance the performance. The potential market can be over billion dollars. Currently, there is no similar product in the market. Small size, low cost micro-cooler can be implemented in any high power IC to control the temperature in NASA and general applications. It can also be used in other equipment that requires operated at low temperatures, such as micro-laser generators, etc.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.