Called “Ionic Wind,” this new solution addresses one of the biggest bottlenecks in forced air heat removal technologies: The “no-slip effect”, which refers to a scenario in which air molecules near the surface of a metal are nearly stationary, making them difficult to blow away. The further out the molecules are from the surface, the more easily they move about. While this allows those more distant molecules to be blown, the ones closer to the metal act as insulators keeping the heat inside.

Purdue's new technique breaks down that insulation barrier and creates thousands of tiny hurricanes. Once the hurricanes begin moving air around, the heat can be blown away.

This hurricane effect is achieved by using a combination of anodes and cathodes arranged in a particular way and spaced about 10 mm apart. When a voltage is applied, ion jets are created and ejected from the nodes. When this happens, the normally stationary surface air begins to move in tiny vortexes. Once pulled away from the surface by the vortex, cooler air is brought in behind to fill in the void. The metal gives off its heat to the cooler air which is then, in turn, also ejected by another vortex. This effect yields the greater heat exchange efficiency seen in this solution.