Frictionless air flow blade fan for thermal management of electronics

This paper introduces a miniaturized frictionless fan concept, which is similar to a piezo-electric driven fan principle. This type of fan has been employed for the enhancement of heat transfer by increasing the fluid circulation in regions which are otherwise stagnant. The introduced fan is based on a flexible blade whose vibration is driven by means of a magnetic field. As opposed to the piezo-electric fan, the blade material can be based on a polymer or steel blade. A static mechanical FE-analysis has shown good potential for a reliable, frictionless (i.e. highly reliable) fan compared to the piezo-electric one or to small axial or radial fans. A flow rate of ~11 l/min could be reached. This is 1/3 below to the compared piezo-electric fan. But the advantage of the introduced fan compared to the piezo-electric fan is its low driving voltage of 2.5 V instead of 120 V. The paper will describe the principle and first experimental results.