MIT Designs Computing Component Using Waste Heat

New analog computing components could allow electronic devices to process data using heat they generate.

Published on Feb. 13, 2026

Got story updates? Submit your updates here. ›

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have published a proof of concept for new analog computing components that could allow electronic devices to process data using the heat they generate. The microscopic silicon structures precisely control how heat spreads across a chip's surface, using the natural laws of heat conduction to redistribute thermal energy and encode it as data.

Why it matters

This approach represents a form of analog computing that could make high-power computing tasks, such as artificial intelligence workloads, more energy-efficient by using heat as a form of information instead of just trying to dissipate it. It could also enable new applications in thermal management, heat-source detection, and temperature-gradient monitoring in microelectronics.

The details

The structures, which are entirely passive and contain no electronics, use the natural laws of heat conduction to redistribute thermal energy toward points where it can be encoded as data. In simulations, the structures performed simple matrix-vector multiplication with more than 99% accuracy. The team now wants to explore scaling this approach to larger systems and integrating it into microelectronic devices.

  • The study was published on January 29, 2026 in the journal Physical Review Applied.
  • The research builds on previous MIT work from 2022 on nanostructured materials for controlling heat flow.

The players

Caio Silva

A physics student at MIT and the lead author of the study.

MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the research was conducted.

Got photos? Submit your photos here. ›

What they’re saying

“Most of the time, when you are performing computations in an electronic device, heat is the waste product. You often want to get rid of as much heat as you can. But here, we've taken the opposite approach by using heat as a form of information itself and showing that computing with heat is possible.”

— Caio Silva, Physics student (MIT statement)

What’s next

The team next wants to explore applications in thermal management, heat-source detection and temperature-gradient monitoring in microelectronics, where the new structures could prevent chips from being damaged without requiring additional power.

The takeaway

This research represents a novel approach to analog computing that could make high-performance computing more energy-efficient by utilizing waste heat as a form of information, rather than just trying to dissipate it. If successfully scaled, this technology could have significant implications for the future of energy-efficient electronics and computing.