Thermal Management for Portable Electronics Using a Piezoelectric Micro-Blower

The present study investigated a novel thermal management for portable electronics using a piezoelectric ultrasonic micro-blower in a miniature space. The effects of distances, tilt angles, driving voltages, and input powers were analyzed to optimize cooling performance of the micro-blower as an active cooling device. Surface temperatures at the heat source were measured with an infrared camera. At θ = 0°, an optimal driving voltage was obtained at 15 V under varying distances. Furthermore, forced convective heat transfer of the micro-blower increased obviously with tilt angle and driving voltage. At θ = 20°, the cooling performance of the micro-blower was optimal at 20 V and D=10 mm. The optimized micro-blower effectively reduced heater temperature by 38.7 °C at high input power of 1.5 W compared with natural convection. Heat transfer coefficient enhanced by 20% when driving voltage of the micro-blower increased from 10 to 20 V at θ = 20° and D=10 mm. The present experimental results facilitated designing a high efficient active cooling system using the ultrasonic micro-blower for portable electronic devices.