Credit card-size cooler from GE is slim, silent

There are no fan blades on GE's cooler.

(Credit: GE)

General Electric has developed an ultraslim cooling solution that could be used in laptops and tablets in the near future.

The cooler uses what GE calls dual piezoelectric cooling jets (DCJ for short). Unlike fan-based versions, which utilize spinning blades, the DCJ implementation is akin to mini bellows that suck in cool air and push out warm air.

As thin as a credit card. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: GE)

GE touts its cooling solution as measuring just 4mm (less than a quarter of an inch), half that of existing coolers. It also runs more quietly without fan blades. These characteristics make such a system very desirable for ultraslim devices such as ultraportable laptops and tablets.

The technology was originally conceived to cool jet engines (CNET got an early look at piezoelectric technology two years ago at GE Research) but it seems the company has made much progress adapting it since.

GE has licensed the DCJ technolog... [Read more]