Thermal oscillator
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsBernd Gotsmann, Fabian Menges
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A thermal oscillator (10) for creating an oscillating heat flux from a stationary spatial thermal gradient between a warm reservoir (20) and a cold reservoir (30) is provided. The thermal oscillator (10) includes a thermal conductor (11) which is connectable to the warm reservoir (20) or to the cold reservoir (30) and configured to conduct a heat flux from the warm reservoir (20) towards the cold reservoir (30), and a thermal switch (12) coupled to the thermal conductor (11) for receiving the heat flux and having a certain difference between two states (S1, S2) of thermal conductance for providing thermal relaxation oscillations such that the oscillating heat flux is created from the received heat flux.
Claims21
A thermal oscillator (10) for creating an oscillating heat flux from a stationary spatial thermal gradient between a warm reservoir (20) and a cold reservoir (30), the thermal oscillator (10) comprising:
- a thermal conductor (11) which is connectable to the warm reservoir (20) or to the cold reservoir (30) and configured to conduct a heat flux from the warm reservoir (20) towards the cold reservoir (30), and
- a thermal switch (12) coupled to the thermal conductor (11) for receiving the heat flux and having two different states (S1, S2) of thermal conductance for providing thermal relaxation oscillations such that the oscillating heat flux is created from the received heat flux.
A device (40) comprising at least one thermal oscillator (10), the thermal oscillator for creating an oscillating heat flux from a stationary spatial thermal gradient between a warm reservoir (20) and a cold reservoir (30), the thermal oscillator (10) comprising:
- a thermal conductor (11) which is connectable to the warm reservoir (20) or to the cold reservoir (30) and configured to conduct a heat flux from the warm reservoir (20) towards the cold reservoir (30), and
- a thermal switch (12) coupled to the thermal conductor (11) for receiving the heat flux and having two different states (S1, S2) of thermal conductance for providing thermal relaxation oscillations such that the oscillating heat flux is created from the received heat flux.
A method for creating an oscillating heat flux from a stationary spatial thermal gradient between a warm reservoir (20) and a cold reservoir (30), the method comprising:
- conducting a heat flux from the warm reservoir (20) towards the cold reservoir (30) by means of a thermal conductor (11) which is thermally connected to the warm reservoir (20) and/or to the cold reservoir (30),
- receiving the heat flux by a thermal switch (12) which is coupled to the thermal conductor (11) and which has two different states (S1, S2) of thermal conductance, and
- creating an oscillating heat flux from the received heat flux by means of thermal relaxation oscillations of the thermal switch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.