Electronics thermal management focus of 2015 Soo Lecture

 

Kenneth Goodson, the Bosch Department Chairman and Davies Family Provostial Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford University, presented the fall 2015 Yunchuan Aisinjioro-Soo Distinguished Lecture November 19 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at Illinois.

 

Goodson’s lecture was titled “Electronics Thermal Management at the Extremes.”

 

His lecture abstract states: “The heat generated by semiconductor devices and electronic components is a big problem for a variety of exciting products and systems including smartphones, electric vehicles, and satellites. “Extreme” is a unifying theme, from nanometer features and 10+ kW chips to severe materials heterogeneity. I summarize these challenges and progress on research topics, including electron and phonon transport in transistors, nanostructured packaging materials, and microfluidic two-phase heat sinks. This talk also highlights two decades of collaborations with the semiconductor industry and Silicon Valley startups.” 

 

MechSE Department Head Tony Jacobi, along with host Assistant Professor Nenad Miljkovic, introduced Goodson, noting the long history of and interesting connections among researchers—including both Goodson and Soo—at Stanford and Illinois. 

 

Goodson earned a PhD from MIT in 1993 and is a Fellow of ASME, IEEE, APS, and AAAS. He co-founded Cooligy, which built microfluidic cooling systems for the Apple G5 computer. He directs the NanoHeat Lab at Stanford, which focuses on fundamental transport physics, interacting extensively with semiconductor and energy companies.  

 

The annual Soo lecture was established in 1992 by Professor Shao Lee Soo and his wife, Hermia. Professor and Mrs. Soo wanted to perpetuate the memory of his mother, Yunchuan Aisinjioro-Soo (1899-1991). Born Princess Shansji of Aisinjioro, the last Royal House of China, she took the pen name Yunchuan and became an accomplished poet and artist. Throughout the turmoil of revolution and war, she steadfastly believed that the way for the family to serve the people is through the education of its children.