Micro cooler to earn UL millions in royalties

THE UNIVERSITY of Limerick is set to receive millions of euro in royalties after signing commercial agreements for new technology its researchers developed for cooling computer devices.

The new micro coolers, which were developed at the Stokes Institute, will use less power, cost less to make, and offer improved performance. They will allow smaller, quieter and more energy efficient products to be developed. The technology is the product of more than five years of research.

The technology uses a new technique that combines new fluidic phenomenon with specially arranged cooling surfaces.

Director of the Technology Transfer Office at the university Paul Dillon said further pioneering innovations were expected from the Stokes Institute. He said the international endorsement of research expertise and market awareness that the licence agreements represented could be used to establish a new high potential start-up company in Ireland to bring these innovations to the market.

The research was funded by Enterprise Ireland, an important element in the project. “It’s essential that this backing is maintained over the coming years and beyond. Research carried out in the universities has the potential to help promote Ireland internationally as a genuine ‘smart economy’ but, without EI support, it would be difficult to keep many of these projects going,” said Mr Dillon.

Two commercial agreements have been signed for use of the technology. One deal with AMD will allow the chipmaker to customise the technology for the next generation of its products.

An agreement with Asia Vital Components, which supplies coolers for central processing units and micro-chip modules, gives the firm a worldwide, non-exclusive, licence to manufacture the micro cooler and sell it.

“In terms of personal electronic devices of all kinds, the world is moving towards smaller sizes and greater power efficiency,” said AVC’s sales director Steve Huang.

“The team at Stokes Institute have designed a cooling technology that can make a huge impact on the ability of manufacturers to deliver these attributes at reduced cost.”

The university stands to receive more than $1 million in licence revenues from the agreements, under which up to 50 million of the micro coolers will be required at first. However, technical director of micromechanical engineering at the Stokes Institute Dr Jeff Punch and senior research fellow Dr Edmond Walsh said the agreements are non-exclusive, which means deals can be made with other firms to bring the micro coolers to other industries.

“It’s a licence on a small part of our technology in this space. This has allowed us to understand how the industry works, the suppliers and the supply chain. We’ve kept the high value stuff and we hope that may lead to spin out in the future or higher value licences with other players,” said Dr Walsh. Talks have been held with several mobile phone manufacturers, and AMD has expressed an interest in evaluating the researchers’ newer technologies. This could potentially yield over $5 million in royalties.