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Silent Microchip 'Fan' Has No Moving Parts

Posted by samzenpus on from the cool-off dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "Researchers in the US have developed a microchip fan with no moving parts that operates silently and generates enough wind to cool a laptop computer. The solid-state fan, developed with support from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), is touted as the most powerful and energy efficient fan of its size. The device produces three times the flow rate of a typical small mechanical fan and is one-fourth the size. The technology has the power to cool a 25W chip with a device smaller than one cubic-cm and can someday be integrated into silicon to make self-cooling chips, according to the researchers."

10 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Intel Nehalem by Armon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hope this technology finds its way onto Intel Nehalem... SSD + SS Fan = Dead silent laptop Now if only we could get batteries 12 times more efficient

  2. I wonder by no-body · · Score: 4, Insightful

    how this would held up in a dusty environment - Q-Tips still working?

  3. Great but.... by Assassin+bug · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Proprietary product produced via NSF funding at Prudue University (a public Land Grant university)? Hasn't there been some talk about public access to NSF-funded research?

  4. Re:Make me read the article... by WaltBusterkeys · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Will this produce the same ozone (O3) emissions that the Ionic breeze does? It's not a huge deal for just one chip-sized cooler in a house (after all, people still buy the Ionic Breeze, which is much larger), but in a whole ton of racked servers in a closed room it could pretty easily exceed indoor air quality guidelines. Just another thing to endanger the health of server nerds. :)

  5. "Of its size" by Guppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the most powerful and energy efficient fan of its size. "Of its size" is the important part. From what I can tell, it's not that the device is so much more efficient that rotary fans in general, but that rotary fans do not scale down in size -- if you look at a 25mm PC cooling fans, the motor hub takes up most of the tiny cross-section available, leaving little stubby fins that manage to move only a pittance despite whining at high RPMs.
  6. Hooray for Ozone generators! by Khyber · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just what I don't need, free-radical generators. Not only is it a component of smog, but it's bad for organic substances as well. No thanks, I'll stick with a ball-bearing fan.

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    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  7. Re:Make me read the article... by Malevolyn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm curious as to why it's still called a "fan," considering the prime element that makes a fan an actual fan would be the spinning blades that move the air. Wouldn't this just be more of a "cooling device?"

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  8. Re:I'm more concerned about ESD. by Hao+Wu · · Score: 5, Insightful
    1) Move production to a country where those issues get ignored.

    2) Blame that country when customers complain of poor quality and health risks.

    3) Hire lawyers, lobby congress, and profit.

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    I suggest you read Slashdot
  9. Re:I'm more concerned about ESD. by jabuzz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also their claims of silent are bogus. Simple fact is the much of the noise from fans comes from the noise as the air blows over the heatsink etc. and not from the fan itself. As this design still has air being blown over heatsinks it will make noise.

  10. Give me an O! Give me a Zone. Or don't. by BForrester · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Does this produce ozone? -- because that would be bad.

    The article seems to imply that the "wind" has a neutral charge, but that's generally not how ionic wind works. (Molecules with a charge are pushed away from a like-charged surface).