WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — Purdue University researchers have devised a cooling system for computer chips that takes its cues from air-conditioning technology.By flushing refrigerant through tiny channels cut into the surface of the chips, mechanical engineering professor Issam Mudawar and his team have demonstrated a fivefold increase in heat emission over traditional air-cooling methods.

“Basically what we’re doing is opening the window of opportunity in terms of heat dissipation, so that chip developers can make more aggressive chips, more demanding chips,” Mudawar told the Washington Post.

Mudawar’s system etches parallel “microchannels” into a chip’s surface and then covers them with a metal plat. Hydrofluorocarbons — the same liquid used in automobile air conditioners — are injected through tiny “microjets,” or holes in the plate. As the liquid flows through the channels, it bubbles and vaporizes, drawing the heat away from the chip. At the end of the pass, the vapor is collected, condensed and recycled.

Mudawar said process shows promise for complex devices like the supercomputers that run weapons systems, especially those under development for lasers, propulsion and sensor arrays. He and his team are hoping to catch the eye of a defense contractor as they refine the system. They already have received about $500,000 from the Office of Naval Research.