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Silent Microchip 'Fan' Has No Moving Parts
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."
.. using ionic winds to cool the CPU isn't a new idea:
http://inventgeek.com/Projects/IonCooler3/overview.aspx
I'm sure by now someone has said "Cool!"
So this thing works similar to an ion drive. A stream of ions from one wire to another drags the surrounding air with it, generating wind. The last entry here has a good graphic.
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...until someone tags this whatcouldpossiblygowrong.
The phenomenon is called corona wind.
And the product is called Ionic Breeze
What?
Can be found here.
how this would held up in a dusty environment - Q-Tips still working?
That was my first thought as well. I have an Ionic Breeze, and when I don't clean it regularly (once a week) it makes loud crackling noises and begins producing small electric arcs. Who is going to clean their CPU fan weekly?
We are all just people.
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?
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. :)
It could then be marketed to gamers and called: "Silent, But Deadly!"
Will this produce the same ozone (O3) emissions that the Ionic breeze does?
Yes.
And if nothing is done to react it back harmlessly the ozone will corrode downwind metals and degrade downwind plastics.
But I'm more concerned about the leftover ions that are carried past the plates. Those can accumulate very high charges (even beyond the voltage used to create the ions) on downstream surfaces. This could destroy semiconductors (if they carry more power when arcing over than the ESD protection can handle) as well as corrupt data (through direct signal injection, capacitive coupling of surges, and mini-EMPs).
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There is an alloy that catalyzes 2O3 into 3O2. It has been proposed (by the company that makes it and has the patent) to mandate it for radiator grills in cars to remove ground-level smog. An excellent idea, but also a really tight-fist business move; then again, a 14 year patent on this is just what patents are for; it'll take 5-10 years to really get the ball rolling on sales with this to make some money, then the last few to recover cost, then they can stop squeezing the industry's balls and everyone makes their own.
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Well, think positively: finally it'll be possible to have a nVidia north-bridge that does't have the equivalent of a fighter jet fan to cool it. (Or at least sounds like it's going to take off and smash into the mandatory case window.)
;)
;)
;)
Ok, so it might build up static and fry the CPU. Big deal. If you bought one of those babies just to run 6-way SLI (3 slot x 2 GPU per 9800GX2 card), you don't want to hang on to one CPU for too long anyway. The CPU is the bottleneck in that setup, and is keeping your preciouss 3DMark score low. If you don't upgrade it immediately when a higher frequency becomes available, and post your new 3DMark scores immediately, your willy-waving rights might be at stake. Worse yet, people might start thinking you're a girl!
So just think of the static buildup as a gentle reminder to upgrade ASAP.
Plus, ok, so you already have every colour of led fan, near UV tubes, glowing SATA cables, and glowing dye in the water-cooling water. Big deal. Every cool kid has those nowadays. Just having a good look at the innards of a computer which looks like a terror attack at a clown makeup factory, only gets you so much willy-waving rights nowadays. So where do you go from there? A few electric sparks and a nice St. Elmo's fire discharge around the PSU and HDD connectors might just add that extra touch.
Everyone will be in awe of that computer at the next LAN party. If they move their stuff away from you and inquire politely about a fire extinguisher, it's just a sign that they're humbled by your greatness and know that their lame-ass girlie rig would look like loser-gear next to yours
Plus, there's probably some paint around that glows when hit by those ions. Like that stuff they put in fluorescent lights. Imagine having a bad-ass glowing logo on your case's window. Now that would proclaim you as "T3H UB3R-L33T H4XXX0R". I mean, it's simply hardcore
Sure, you might lose the contents of that HDD now and then, but it's not too bad. Windows fills with crud anyway, and eventually it might affect those preciouss 3DMark scores. A reformat now and then will do the sucker a world of good.
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