A University of Texas at Dallas researcher has received a Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to support his research to prevent 3D integrated circuits from overheating. Before the semiconductor industry can transition to 3D microsystems, however, new technologies to cool the integrated circuits are needed. To avoid overheating, only a small portion of the computing capacity is used currently.”Dai is working to integrate microfluidic evaporative cooling into 3D chip design. The fluid then evaporates and removes heat, similar to the way sweat evaporates to help human bodies avoid overheating. Because of his group’s achievements, he received an Outstanding Early Career Award from the Micro Flow and Interfacial Phenomena Conference in 2021 and a Jonsson School faculty research award in 2022.