Miniaturized frictionless fan concept for thermal management of electronic

This paper introduces a miniaturized frictionless fan concept, which is similar to a piezo-electric driven fan principle and that can fits into a size of a matchbox. 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.