As electronics get smaller, faster, and more powerful, the devices we count on in our everyday connected lives tend to get hotter, requiring some kind of cooling device. Laptops have enough room for a fan to extract heat from the CPU and memory modules, but sometimes these can become noisy.
Additionally, fans take up a lot of space, which means that the thickness of a laptop can be limited. This also means that fans are unlikely to be found in the latest in mobile computing solutions, smartphones and tablet computers. Still, these devices also tend to heat up during use.
General Electric is always on the lookout to cool electronic systems and components, such as those found in the the GE90-115B Jet Engine, two of which power the Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner.
The new “dual piezo cooling jet” is less than 3mm thick, much smaller than a fan, and can be placed in a much smaller space to move air where it is needed. Used in series, the jet can cool an intake manifold, or used singly, can cool a single component on a circuit board, or a whole laptop, as shown in the video.
General Electric’s new piezoelectric cooling device, running at 200hz, moves more air than a standard fan, while using less electricity, increasing battery life. The cooling jet is also quiet, which will make laptop users happy. Finally, and probably most impressive, the new cooling jet is thin enough that it could find its way into even thinner laptops or tablet computers, enhancing cooling without sacrificing weight, thickness, or silence.
“We are enabling the next generation of thin products. There are different tricks you can do to make it smaller or larger. This particular concept can be scaled to whatever your application needs are,” said Peter de Bock, GE Electronics Cooling Engineer.
