Anovel approach targeted at resolving some of the electronics industry's biggest thermal and power management challenges in high-end flip-chipped devices is, not surprisingly, attracting lots of attention. Nextreme Inc. (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) has developed thermally active copper pillar bumps that, when an electrical current is passed through, are capable of rapidly cooling one side relative to the other. Just reverse the process and pass heat through the thermal bump to generate power. And there's no limit to how small the geometry of the bump can go - it can scale right along with the bumping process and the chip side.
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