PC Processor vendor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) has been granted a development license by the University of Limerick to customize the micro-cooler technology, while Asia Vital Components, the world's largest supplier of coolers for CPUs and micro-chip modules (MCMs), has signed a non-exclusive license to make and sell the micro-cooler.

Stokes Institute has specialized in thermal management, including microfluidics, and the technology has evolved over five years. Researchers there identified a series of previously unreported cooling interactions that can take place within and at material interfaces and that could be manipulated to create more efficient thermal management of electronic devices.

Researchers at the Stokes Institute discovered a technique of combining these fluidic phenomena with specially arranged cooling surfaces. This led to the design of a single combination cooling device that they claim is smaller, cheaper and considerably more energy efficient than technology currently on the market.

The micro-cooler is the first of a number of cooling technologies developed at the Stokes Institute that will be brought to market, the University of Limerick said.