Diamond-cooled microchips boost power density 3.3x for radar systems

Diamond-cooled microchips boost power density 3.3x for radar systems

Northrop Grumman has secured a $7 million DARPA contract to develop diamond-enhanced microchips that could handle far more power without overheating. The work forms Phase 2 of DARPA’s Technologies for Heat Removal in Electronics at the Device Scale program, known as THREADS. Researchers want to solve a growing problem inside advanced military electronics: heat. Modern radio-frequency chips generate enormous amounts of heat in increasingly compac…

Northrop Grumman targets tenfold chip power density with DARPA-backed diamond cooling for military radar and communications

The work is part of DARPA’s Technologies for Heat Removal in Electronics at the Device Scale program, known as THREADS. Meeting the Phase 2 target would raise power density to about 10 times the program’s original level. Radio-frequency systems often operate below their maximum output to avoid overheating, which limits performance and can shorten component life. Diamond conducts heat five times faster than copper and removes it more effectively …