Cooling Technologies Research Center (CTRC)

Miniature Piezoelectric Fans
Innovative, miniature piezoelectric fans have been developed in this CTRC project (by Arvind Raman and Suresh Garimella) into a viable technology for meeting a variety of cooling needs in portable and small-scale electronic devices. These fans are small, noiseless, extremely low-power devices, and can easily be fabricated to suit specific applications. They are very well suited to providing supplemental cooling in hot spots and other stagnant areas in devices such as laptops and cell phones where rotary fan action is ineffective. In smaller devices, where rotary fans are not practical and electronics are pushed to the limits of their heat dissipation capacities, piezoelectric fans offer the only realistic cooling solution while meeting the noise and power constraints of portable devices. Analytical tools have been developed for modeling the flow field, heat transfer, and fan structure; flow-structure interaction is currently being investigated, to allow the design of optimal cooling systems. For more information, contact Suresh Garimella, 765-494-5621; sureshg@ecn.purdue.edu.