Dynamic thermal management under variable operating conditions through magnetic field control

Phase change material (PCM)-based systems exhibit considerable potential for enhancing the thermal performance and operating reliability of electronic devices. However, under diverse environmental operating conditions, conventional approaches demonstrate inadequate adaptability to address dynamic thermal management demands. This study presents a magnetic field-based, contactless tuning strategy that dynamically regulates heat transfer performance through precisely controlling the mesoscale nanoparticle aggregation structures. By systematically varying the angular orientation of the aggregates relative to the primary heat flux direction, a 1.8-fold reduction on effective thermal resistance relative to the original composite PCM is achieved. Leveraging this tunable thermal resistance mechanism, a reconfigurable thermal management framework is developed. Compared to the performance without magnetic field regulation, a 10.8 °C mitigation of temperature excursions is demonstrated in electronic components under dynamic and intermittent loading conditions. These findings establish a scalable paradigm for addressing transient thermal challenges in high-performance electronic systems, particularly under extreme operational variability. Managing heat in electronics is particularly challenging under variable operating conditions. Here, the authors develop a dynamic method to regulate the heat transfer path on demand using a magnetic field, achieving a 1.8-fold change in thermal resistance to stabilize device temperature.