| active area of the device in the picture measures just 15 x 15 mm, or 0.59" x 0.59" |
|
According to
ITnews Australia, however, U.S.-based researchers have developed
a new "fan"
design that doesn't actually have any moving parts. The design is nicknamed
RSD5, and iTnews Australia says it took Dan Schlitz and Vishal Singhal of Thorrn
Micro Technologies six years to develop. In short, RSD5 uses electric fields to
generate a plasma that can move air. Singhal describes it as follows: "He
explained that RSD5 incorporates a series of live wires that generate a
micro-scale plasma (an ion-rich gas that has free electrons that conduct
electricity). The wires lie within uncharged conducting plates that are
contoured into half-cylindrical shapes to partially envelop the wires. Within
the intense electric field that results, ions push neutral air molecules from
the wire to the plate, generating a wind. The phenomenon is called corona wind."
The result is a device that generates three times the air flow of a small fan at
just a quarter of the size. In fact, iTnews says an RSD5 "smaller than one
cubic-cm" is capable of cooling a 25W chiproughly the power envelope of today's
laptop processors. Singhal and Schlitz believe they can go so far as to
integrate the cooling system into the silicon to make "self-cooling chips," as
well.