Cooling of mobile electronic devices using phase change materials

An experimental study is conducted on the cooling of mobile electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and wearable computers, using a heat storage unit (HSU) filled with the phase change material (PCM) of n-eicosane inside the device. The high latent heat of n-eicosane in the HSU absorbs the heat dissipation from the chips and can maintain the chip temperature below the allowable service temperature of 50degreesC for 2 h of transient operations of the PDA. The heat dissipation of the chips inside a PDA and the orientation of the HSU are experimentally investigated in this paper. It was found that different orientation of the HSU inside the PDA could affect significantly the temperature distribution. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.