News - Sunon's smallest blows us away

[HEXUS]

Tiny air movers for cooling compact devices.

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[Andi-C]

The Chip on my credit card after the missus has been spending on it !

[Pob255]

Thoes are actually quite cool

You could have them mounted individually on memory chips

[Kirano]

lol @Andi-C's comment!

I had to get a ruler out to truely appreaciate how small that 8mm one is! It's quite an amazing piece of engineering. I wonder though where it would be useful; do things like USB sticks really need fans? I suppose the really high performance ones might but how would it work? Would you need a really small heatsink as well, or would it just blow air directly onto the device to be cooled?
I can see Pob255's point about precision cooling of individual memory chips. I wonder whether one, larger fan wouldn't be just as effective, but I guess these fans are for places where space really matters.

I'll be interested to see where these little fellas end up....

[TheVoice]

I suppose very compact devices might benefit somehow, but I do have to wonder what difference such a small fan would really make. Wonder what noise is like too.

[Temi_D]

mobile phones maybe?

[Whiternoise]

Memory was what i was expecting too - or things like integrated GPUs, north/southbridge chips. They're small enough that you could have an arrangement like fan (or two) mounted vertically blowing air over a low profile heatsink - one cm high remember so it's not a problem to mount them standing up.

[TAKTAK]

mobile phones maybe?

An interesting thought, but most likely infeasible due to phones spending a large amount of their time in pockets, thus being subjected to pocket lint and an enclosed space, so i would think that in that case, the fan would merely speed up the ingress of fluff and detritus. Thus causing long term undesirable effects and reduced lifespan of the product.

[jim]

I've got images of that modded mouse someone made, with air holes and a small fan to keep you hand cool during the summer

[Funkstar]

An interesting thought, but most likely infeasible due to phones spending a large amount of their time in pockets, thus being subjected to pocket lint and an enclosed space, so i would think that in that case, the fan would merely speed up the ingress of fluff and detritus. Thus causing long term undesirable effects and reduced lifespan of the product.

True, but it is likely only going to need a fan when doing something intensive, like playing video or a 3D game. At those times it's going to be out in the open. I still agree about the ingress of dust though.

What about tablets, ultra slim laptops and netbooks, PMPs.....

[TAKTAK]

True, but it is likely only going to need a fan when doing something intensive, like playing video or a 3D game. At those times it's going to be out in the open. I still agree about the ingress of dust though.

What about tablets, ultra slim laptops and netbooks, PMPs.....

But unless you have a proximity sensor in the phone (obviously not unheard of nowadays), then the phone is still going to be cooling itself down for a time after you've put it into you pocket (i.e. watch video, then straight into pocket)


Could be rather interesting in-terms of singularly cooling MOSFETs, although a larger fan offering greater airflow would be more beneficial if the situation would allow.


But they're going to move less air than an asthmatic blowing through a straw...

[jim]

But they're going to move less air than an asthmatic blowing through a straw...

To be fair, I can do fairly well at that on a good day

[baius]

To be fair, I can do fairly well at that on a good day

We were talking about the air coming from your mouth.

I've got images of that modded mouse someone made, with air holes and a small fan to keep you hand cool during the summer

Good for this if your hands get clammy: http://media.bestofmicro.com/mouse-m...-247815-13.jpg

(Sorry to quote you twice, snooty.)

[jim]

We were talking about the air coming from your mouth.

*Ahem*. Well technically speaking, TakTak didn't specify

(Sorry to quote you twice, snooty.)

I'll forgive you on this occasion.

[Kirano]

One thing that's occured to me, following the conversation about these being in phones and the problem of pocket lint, is the really small ones are probably going to be really sensitive to dust and dirt. The fans in my antec regularly build up a fine layer of dust on their blades, but it doesn't reduce their functionality, at least not noticeably. For the 8mm fan however, I can imagine dust being a real problem. Covering the blades, getting into mechanics etc., degrading performance. Though I suppose it may not attract as much dust to begin with, being much smaller...

[baius]

I'll forgive you on this occasion.

Gracious as always.

...following the conversation...

Sorry for disturbing the thread