Thermal management: Enabling enhanced functionality and reduced carbon footprint

Communications equipment providers are increasingly being required to meet two often-conflicting targets in the design of their hardware, namely, enhanced product functionality and reduced carbon footprint. Development of enhanced thermal management technologies has the potential to positively impact both functionality, by enabling higher processing density on circuit boards, and carbon footprint, by reducing the energy needed to maintain component operating temperatures within their prescribed limits. In this paper we present an overview of the thermal management challenges facing the communications industry today. We then highlight several technologies being developed at Bell Labs that address these challenges, including novel heat sink designs for enhancing heat transfer to air; liquid cooling solutions that enable operation of extremely high heat density cabinets and simultaneously reduce or eliminate the need for room-based air conditioning systems; thermal interface materials with reduced thermal resistance that allow components to operate at lower temperatures; vortex generators that enhance local heat transfer; and thermoelectric module assemblies that enable waste-heat recovery.