The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 27, 2014
Filed:
Mar. 13, 2013
Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Bowen Cheng, Redwood City, CA (US);
Dirk DeBruyker, San Jose, CA (US);
Eugene M. Chow, Fremont, CA (US);
Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
Micro-plasma is generated at the tip of a micro-spring by applying a positive voltage to the spring's anchor portion and a negative voltage to an electrode maintained a fixed gap distance from the spring's tip portion. By generating a sufficiently large voltage potential (i.e., as determined by Peek's Law), current crowding at the tip portion of the micro-spring creates an electrical field that sufficiently ionizes neutral molecules in a portion of the air-filled region surrounding the tip portion to generate a micro-plasma event. Ionic wind air currents are generated by producing multiple micro-plasma events using micro-springs disposed in a pattern to produce a pressure differential that causes air movement over the micro-springs. Ionic wind cooling is produced by generating such ionic wind air currents, for example, in the gap region between an IC die and a base substrate disposed in a flip-chip arrangement.