A Novel Thermal Connector
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: The purpose of the proposed project is to advance the technology utilized for manufacturing thermal connectors used for retaining and extracting heat from rack-mounted printed circuit boards (PCBs). This type of PCB retainer is often referred to as a wedgelock. Wedgelocks are conduction heat transfer devices used to passively cool electronics in a multitude of environments and applications. The proposed development is based on a new design concept, invented at UCLA, which utilizes temperature-activated “smart” material to fabricate an autonomous wedgelock device with superior thermal performance to current state of art designs. The goal of the project is to advance this concept from the present early feasibility stage of development to the point where the innovation is ready for transition to industrial application. A provisional patent disclosure has been filed to protect the intellectual property relating to the autonomous wedgelock concept invented at UCLA. The invention has been reduced to practice through design and characterization of feasibility hardware by a UCLA team under the direction of the principal investigator for the proposed POC project. The team, comprised of three mechanical engineering Ph.D. graduate students at UCLA, designed, fabricated, and characterized the novel autonomous wedgelocking device for entry into a competition sponsored by DARPA. The UCLA design innovates over current off the shelf designs by dramatically increasing the contact area between the wedgelock and the cold plate, which in turn increases the heat transfer. Commercial off the shelf (COTS) designs have relatively poor heat transfer performance and have to be manually screw tightened. The UCLA design prototypes are autonomous, boast 40% better thermal performance, and conservative cost estimates place them on par with COTS products. The UCLA design consists of fewer parts, so it is anticipated that design for manufacturing (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA) analyses will further reduce the cost of the new design to well below the COTS product level. California’s traditionally rich presence in high technology and semiconductor markets provides a large in-state market for enhanced wedgelock designs. Some of the largest consumers of these devices have large scale operations in California and the demand is only increasing as data centers and cloud computing become more prevalent. UCLA’s thermal connector design was born out of a DARPA sponsored research effort for the defense market’s desire for innovative, and specifically autonomous, designs in what has become a stagnant field. There is little to no research and development occurring at the companies that produce wedgelocks and as such, wedgelock designs over the years have not improved or changed noticeably. Furthermore, the single largest producer of wedgelocks in the country is Calmark, a Pentair affiliate, based in San Diego. Whether the best path for bringing the UCLA innovation to market is through formation of a startup company or through licensing, these advanced wedgelock d