Noctua and Forced Physics DCT announced a joint research partnership to explore how Forced Physics’ patented JouleForce™ micro-channel array technology can be brought to desktop PCs and workstations. The collaboration is a long-term research and development effort that is not tied to a specific product or release date.

JouleForce™ arrays leverage geometry-driven molecular collisions at the channel walls: the boundary layer that limits conventional air cooling never fully forms, so heat is extracted along the entire length of each micro-channel. This allows large amounts of heat to be removed using air alone, without the pumps, tubing and liquid loops of water cooling, at power levels that are becoming difficult to manage with conventional air coolers.

The central challenge is the operating point. At this stage, the micro-channel geometry that gives the arrays their thermal performance also produces a steep system impedance curve, with a pressure drop an order of magnitude and more above the range covered by conventional axial PC fans; current implementations therefore duct the arrays to industrial blowers, high-speed centrifugal fans or vacuum pumps. The established means of reaching such pressures – much higher rotational speeds or multi-stage impellers – are ruled out for desktop use by acoustic requirements, and the sealing required to prevent bypass leakage at these pressure levels is difficult to reconcile with the modularity and size constraints of PC cases. Investigating how the necessary static pressure levels can either be reduced or generated within these constraints is the focus of the partnership.

To learn more about Forced Physics’ patented JouleForce™ micro-channel array technology, please visit https://forcedphysics.com/