A joint team from POSTECH, Chungnam National University, and KAIST has developed a breakthrough technology to significantly increase the commercialization potential of spin wave-based solutions, a promising next-generation approach to solving electronic device overheating. The research, led by Professor Hyungyu Jin (ME) and Dr. Sang Joon Park (National Institute for Materials Science, Japan), was conducted in collaboration with Chungnam National University and KAIST. The results were published in Matter.
If you have ever felt your smartphone or computer suddenly heat up after extended use, it is due to energy converting into heat while electrons move to process and store data. As electronic devices become smaller and more complex with advancements like AI and cloud computing, the overheating problem is worsening.
A promising solution is spin wave-based data transmission. Spin waves use the spin properties of electrons in insulators to transmit information without electron flow. Recent studies have shown that increasing temperature imbalance in spin waves, where one side heats up and the other cools down, improves transmission efficiency. However, there has not been a way to independently control spin wave temperature until now.
The joint team developed a novel approach inspired by radiator fins used to cool car engines. They added nanometer-scale gold structures, the thermal fins, to one end of a magnetic insulating thin film. By adjusting the amount of gold, they effectively regulated temperature and induced a temperature imbalance, which improved spin wave transmission efficiency by more than 250%. This is the first time a team has independently controlled spin wave temperature, achieving significant improvements in efficiency.
“This technology represents a major turning point for next-generation information transmission systems that address overheating in electronic devices,” said Prof. Jin. Dr. Park added, “Overcoming previous limitations, this solution has vast potential for future spin wave applications.”
The research was supported by the Samsung Future Technology Incubation Program, the National Research Foundation (NRF), and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology. It also won the Silver Prize in the Energy and Environment category at the Samsung Humantech Paper Award.
