Xiaomi Introduces New Water Cooling Technology for Mobile Devices

[Uskompuf]

Xiaomi today unveiled its latest breakthrough in heat dissipation - Loop LiquidCool Technology. Inspired by cooling solutions used in the aerospace industry, Loop LiquidCool Technology utilizes a capillary effect which draws liquid cooling agent to the heat source, vaporizes, and then disperses the heat efficiently towards a cooler area, until the agent condenses and is captured via a unidirectional closed looped channel. Compared to conventional vapor chambers solutions, this new technology has twice the cooling capabilities and ranks as the most efficient smartphone cooling solution. Xiaomi aims to bring Loop LiquidCool Technology to its products in H2 2022.

This new technology features an annular heat pipe system that is composed of an evaporator, a condenser, a refill chamber, as well as gas and liquid pipes. Placed at heat sources, the evaporator has refrigerant that evaporates to gas when the smartphone is under high workload. The gas and airflow is then diffused to the condenser, where the gas condenses into liquid again. These liquids are absorbed and collected through tiny fibers in the refill chamber—which refills the evaporator—making it a self-sustaining system.





Although this new technology uses the same method as VC liquid cooling, the new form factor makes a significant efficiency difference. As conventional VC systems do not have separate channels for gases and liquids, hot gas and cool liquids mix and obstruct each other while, especially under high workload. The ring-shaped pump features a special gas pipe design, which greatly reduces air passage resistance by 30%. By allowing for a smoother steam flow, the maximum heat transfer capacity is increased by up to 100%.

To ensure one-way high-efficiency circulation, implementing a Tesla valve structure within the refill chamber is crucial. A Tesla valve is a one-way valve that allow liquid to pass through the evaporator, while blocking gases from moving in the incorrect direction. This allows for a higher efficiency in gas/liquid circulation throughout the system.

On a custom Xiaomi MIX 4, the original vapor chamber was replaced with a new Loop LiquidCool Technology solution. During a 30-minute Genshin Impact gameplay test running 60 FPS max video settings, this impressive cooling system kept the device below a max temperature of 47.7℃ and the processor was 8.6℃ lower than the standard version.

Thanks to the one-way circulation, gas-liquid separation, and low heat-resistance gas pipes of the Tesla valve, the flexible form factor also makes it possible to adopt and stack Loop LiquidCool Technology into any type of internal design. For example, a square-shaped loop will allow more space for the battery, camera module, and more.

Introduction Video

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Caring1]

Maybe smart phone cases will have this built in to assist in keeping them cool.

 

[Verpal]

So, circular heatpipe with passive Tesla one way valve, sounds great on paper, not sure whether it will outperform conventional heatpipe, lets wait for actual thermal performance benchmark.

 

[Totally]

Person who drew those arrows clearly doesn't know how those valves work, and they drew the flow in the wrong direction

 

[PLAfiller]

Well, my phone was on fire when I couldn't let go of SkyForce Reloaded for quite a while. Other than that, I guess this could have implications in certain scenarios: leaving your phone on the car dashboard @50 degrees Celsius, living in the desert, beach?, etc.

 

[maxfly]

I think the real question is will it scale? Can they produce something effective enough to cool a laptop?

 

[owen10578]

Person who drew those arrows clearly doesn't know how those valves work, and they drew the flow in the wrong direction

I mean that is the point of the drawing...showing it can't go past the valves when in the wrong direction.

 

[LTUGamer]

Yeyyy!!! Now I can make calls faster with my watercooled phone!

 

[fusionblu]

I will leave this here due to strong similarities with the Tesla Valve and this cooling system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_valve

 

[Caring1]

I will leave this here due to strong similarities with the Tesla Valve and this cooling system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_valve

Did you even read the article?

 

[Chomiq]

I will leave this here due to strong similarities with the Tesla Valve and this cooling system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_valve

I will spell it out for you:

To ensure one-way high-efficiency circulation, implementing a Tesla valve structure within the refill chamber is crucial. A Tesla valve is a one-way valve that allow liquid to pass through the evaporator, while blocking gases from moving in the incorrect direction. This allows for a higher efficiency in gas/liquid circulation throughout the system.

 

[Nuke Dukem]

My inner geek says "Cool, about time!", but my inner realist says "Oh, great, another thing to complicate repairs further once a friend or colleague drops and breaks their new phone and I have to repair it... "

 

[Totally]

I mean that is the point of the drawing...showing it can't go past the valves when in the wrong direction.

Looks like it it flowing all the way to me

My inner geek says "Cool, about time!", but my inner realist says "Oh, great, another thing to complicate repairs further once a friend or colleague drops and breaks their new phone and I have to repair it... "

No moving parts so it shouldn't complicate anything.

 

[Nuke Dukem]

No moving parts so it shouldn't complicate anything.

Any additional thing that goes inside ramps up the difficulty, especially if there's some type of glue or adhesive to keep it in place. And there often is.

 

[Totally]

Any additional thing that goes inside ramps up the difficulty, especially if there's some type of glue or adhesive to keep it in place. And there often is.

You said complicate not make more difficult to repair. Also it's going to be contained inside a vapor chamber, so either way it's going to be the same at that stage.

 

[LabRat 891]

The fact we don't have any decent 'cooling' protective phone cases is mad. I expect they want to integrate this into their devices, but I'd rather see a new standard feature in cheapy cases. I wonder if the concept works with metal/graphene composite plastic?

 

[watzupken]

This cooler helps quickly dissipate heat across the copper. In the short run, it will help improve cooling. However if you are hammering the mobile device with a sustained load, you will end up in a situation where there is nowhere for the heat to go. At the rate the SOC and hardware are being pushed really hard with each iteration over the years, I feel we will eventually end up with phones that comes with active cooling, rather than a passive one. Otherwise, all the phones will throttle hard under sustained load just like what we are observing now.

 

[R-T-B]

Yeyyy!!! Now I can make calls faster with my watercooled phone!

I'm amazed you still think young people do phonecalls on their phones.

 

[Nuke Dukem]

You said complicate not make more difficult to repair. Also it's going to be contained inside a vapor chamber, so either way it's going to be the same at that stage.

I'd argue that complicated = difficult, but at this point it's potato/potato semantics and I don't wanna wander that far off topic.

 

[Prima.Vera]

But...why? Winter is coming...

 

[Totally]

I'd argue that complicated = difficult, but at this point it's potato/potato semantics and I don't wanna wander that far off topic.

Dang, I had a counterpoint in the form of a real world example where adding a complication made repairs and installations easier.

 

[seth1911]

New cooling design to play candycrush?

For sure Smartphones today are very fast but i still can play on an Atom x5 xxxx a real game like FFXIV on 720p,
i saw a few mmo like games but they are all only p2w and havent anything to do with games for console or pc.

 

[Flanker]

But...why? Winter is coming...

I get what you're saying but can't help saying the southern Hemisphere exists too lol