Piezoelectric Actuators for Low-Form-Factor Electronics Cooling

Abstract

The cooling performance of piezoelectric actuators is evaluated for low-form-factor electronics in this work. A piezoelectric actuator is a cantilever made from metal or plastic with a piezoelectric material bonded to it. Under an alternating electrical current, the piezo actuator oscillates back and forth, generating airflow. Compared to conventional fans, these actuators have the advantages of low power consumption, low noise, and smaller dimensions. The parameters investigated in the experiments are actuator orientation, actuator-to-heat source distance, and actuator amplitude. For an actuator power consumption of 31 mW, the heat source temperature was lowered by more than 25°C compared to natural convection conditions (for a 2.45 W heater power dissipation). Performance comparisons against axial fans and natural convection heat sinks show that the piezo actuators perform significantly better in terms of power consumption and cooling volume. This paper was also originally published as part of the Proceedings of the ASME 2005 Heat Transfer Summer Conference.

High reliability piezoelectric fan cooling for electric machine thermal management

“…The entire setup was placed inside a significantly sized enclosure so as to eradicate any atmospheric and stray fluctuations in the test section region. ) were calculated for the various tested fan/fin geometries according to equations (7), (8) and (9) respectively. …”

“…% Inc h ) exceeding 375% and 444% respectively relative to a purely natural convection state (Fan off) is achievable on a vertical flat surface. Acikalin et al [8] performed additional comparative studies between an oscillating piezoelectric fan and two commercially available axial fans. Results indicate that piezoelectric fans outperform axial fans both in terms of power consumption (31mW vs. 500mW) as well as cooling volume.…”

Optimum tip gap and orientation of multi-piezofan for heat transfer enhancement of finned heat sink in microelectronic cooling

“…In a similar study using single piezofan, Acikalin et al [9] obtained significant localized cooling and more than 100% enhancement in convective heat transfer coefficient relative to natural convection. In their extension work [10], it was shown that for a given power consumption piezofans were significantly better than axial fans, and compared to natural convection heat sink the piezofans used lesser volume. Yoo et al [11] attempted the possibility of replacing rotary fan by piezofan.…”

Low profile fan and heat sink thermal management solution for portable applications

“…However, little work has been done to date on the development of forced convection cooling schemes at scales appropriate to handheld devices. Some studies have addressed piezoelectric based fans [9,10], but their low flow rate combined with the requirement for high voltages makes them unlikely competitors in the portable electronics market place. Recently, studies addressing the aerodynamics effects of geometrical scaling in both axial fans [11] and radial fans [12], has lead to the development of low profile rotary fans for potential use in electronics cooling applications.…”