Heat dissipation method using frequency-selective thin-film coatings for cryogenic electronic circuits
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsSergio A. Montoya, Marcio C. de Andrade
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Abstract
A heat dissipation method comprising: providing a superconducting electronic circuit; applying a thin-film coating over a surface of the circuit, wherein the thin-film coating is mostly transparent to broadband electromagnetic radiation, has a thickness of less than 100 nanometers, and is designed to dissipate visible-spectrum radiation so as to reduce radiative heat absorption by the circuit; and enclosing the thin-film-coated circuit within a broadband-frequency-transparent enclosure that is capable of maintaining superconducting conditions within the enclosure such that the circuit is exposed to broadband-frequency radiation emanating from a location outside of the enclosure.
Claims20
A heat dissipation method comprising:
- providing a superconducting electronic circuit;
- applying a thin-film coating over a surface of the superconducting electronic circuit to create a thin-film-coated circuit, wherein the thin-film coating has a thickness of less than 100 nanometers and is designed to dissipate visible- and ultraviolet-spectrum electromagnetic radiation so as to dissipate radiative heat so as to reduce radiative heat absorption by the thin-film-coated circuit;
- and
- enclosing the thin-film-coated circuit within a radome that is capable of maintaining superconducting conditions within the radome;
- and
- exposing the thin-film-coated circuit to electromagnetic radiation emanating from a location outside of the radome.
A heat dissipation method comprising:
- providing a cryogenic electronic circuit;
- applying a multi-layer thin-film coating directly on a surface of the cryogenic electronic circuit to create a thin-film-coated circuit, wherein the multi-layer thin-film coating has a thickness of less than 100 nanometers and is designed to dissipate one or more of visible-spectrum radiation and ultraviolet-spectrum radiation so as to reduce radiative heat absorption by the thin-film-coated circuit, wherein each layer of the multi-layer thin-film coating possesses different frequency-dependent permittivity and permeability characteristics;
- enclosing the thin-film-coated circuit within a radome that is capable of maintaining cryogenic conditions within the radome;
- and
- exposing the thin-film-coated circuit to electromagnetic radiation emanating from a location outside of the radome.
A heat dissipation method comprising:
- disposing a first thin film layer directly on a top surface of a capping layer of a superconducting circuit made of superconducting material;
- disposing a second thin-film on top of the first thin-film layer, wherein the second thin-film layer has different frequency-dependent permittivity and permeability characteristics than the first thin-film layer, and wherein the first thin-film layer and the second thin-film layer create a multi-layer thin-film coating;
- negatively etching the second thin-film layer to leave a grid of square features of the second thin-film layer disposed on the first thin-film layer, wherein the multi-layer thin-film coating has a thickness of less than 100 nanometers and is designed to dissipate visible-spectrum radiation and ultraviolet-spectrum radiation so as to reduce radiative heat absorption by the superconducting circuit;
- enclosing the superconducting circuit covered by the multi-layer thin-film coating within a radome;
- maintaining cryogenic conditions within the radome;
- keeping the superconducting circuit in contact with a localized cold surface of a cryocooler cold-finger probe;
- using the cryocooler cold-finger probe to cool the superconducting circuit to an operating temperature below a critical temperature of the superconductor material;
- exposing the superconducting circuit covered by the multi-layer thin-film coating to electromagnetic radiation that emanates from a location outside of, and that passes through, and that potentially scatters within, the radome;
- and
- reflecting, with the multi-layer thin-film coating, visible- and ultraviolet-spectrum radiation as well as unwanted RF signals within the electromagnetic radiation, wherein the unwanted RF signals have frequencies outside a desired range of interest corresponding to the superconducting circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.