Posted on Monday, February 16 2009 @ 19:08 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Sparkle unveiled a new graphics card cooling technology named Diamonds Sputtering technology, this technique uses Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) to improve heat dissipation. The DLC is applied as a membrane on the surface of GPU heatsinks to improve the heat conduction. Sparkle tested it on a GeForce 9500 GT and reports the DLC coating resulted in a temperature drop from 88°C to 83°C.
With a strong R&D team, SPARKLE introduced Diamonds Sputtering technology, which plate a Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane on the surface of video cards cooling fins to realize the cooling effects of DLC. Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane can help to quickly transfer the heat from GPU and video memory chips to the cooling fins. SPARKLE R&D team found in the study that Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) which gradually been found in the past few years has many high-natures, such as high optical penetrating, high-chemical corrosion-resistant, excellent friction properties and good compatibility. In addition, Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) also has a high heat conduction. General heatsink is relies on the electronics movement within the metal (such as copper) to do heat conduction. The diamonds do heat dissipation four times faster than copper, it relies on the phonons which is produced by the crystal lattice vibration, to bring heat to lower temperature places. Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) can achieve both functions at the same time, that is, transferring heat to lower temperature places with both graphite metal bond and diamond insulation bond (the covalent bond) . Apart from this, Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) can transfer carbon surface heat (atomic vibrations) into the infrared radiation of electromagnetic waves in bold (Black Body Radiation) , directly to the air molecules.
SPARKLE R&D team is now using the leading technology of Plasma Enhanced CVD, (PECVD) for SPARKLE graphics cards, to plate Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane on the surface of video cards cooling radiator, providing unbeatable cooling effect, significantly raising the heat transfer speed from the GPU and video memory chips to the cooling radiator. With tests, SPARKLE R&D team found that compared with no Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane, Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane can reduce the value of thermal resistance of the radiator about 0.05, the radiator temperature can be reduced by 5 degrees Celsius, greatly accelerate the heat conduction from GPU and video memory chips.
The company also found the DLC membrane helps to prevent scratching and oxidation:
In addition, SPARKLE R&D team also found that, in addition to outstanding cooling effect, the Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane is a super-hard carbon coating, it can protect the radiator metal from scratching. Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane can isolated the air to avoid the thermal conductance reduction of radiator due to oxidation (such as the formation of Cu2O or Al2O3). Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane can also protect heat sinks from water vapor or acid-base erosion. Therefore, Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane is the best option for extending the service life of SPARKLE graphics cards.
Because the current cost of this technology is still high, SPARKLE will consider the appropriate application step by step according to the real situations of the new products.
