xMEMS µCooling fan-on-a-chip adds solid-state active cooling to SSDs for laptops and data centers

xMEMS Labs µCooling fan-on-a-chip solution now supports solid-state drives (SSDs) used in NVMe M.2 SSDs used in laptop PCs and enterprise E3.S form factor SSDs used in AI data centers with a temperature reduction of as much as 30%.

The solution is based on the same technology as the xMEMS XMC-2400 1 mm-thin micro cooling fan-on-a-chip introduced last year, and aims to replace passive heat spreaders and flow from system fans with a hyper-localized active cooling directly to the NAND flash and controller ICs from within the SSD itself, making it mostly invisible to the user and enabling thinner and more dense designs.

If the illustration pictured above matches reality, the xMEMS µCooling fan-on-a-chip is not placed in the chips themselves, contrary to a similar solution like AirJet, but in a strategic location on the SSD’s PCB, so that it can blow air to cool the chips. The chip is rather small at 9.3 x 7.6 x 1.13mm, so it does not take much PCB area, and it can scale to multiple chips for further cooling if necessary.

xMEMS µCooling is a solid-state device with a piezoMEMS design without any motors or moving bearings, yet it can generate airflow for cooling chips. Since there’s no mechanical wear, it improves reliability and, by extension, lowers maintenance costs.

The company explains that SSDs in E3.S form factors usually operate at 9.5W TDP or higher, and thermal modeling with µCooling integrated has shown 3W of heat removal capability, over 18% average temperature reduction, and over 25% lower thermal resistance. This allows drives to sustain high-speed I/O without performance degradation, and improves both reliability and throughput in AI/ML workloads. A similar modeling with NVMe M.2 SSDs in laptop PCs has shown that the µCooling chip delivers an average of 30-50% power overhead allowance, over 20% temperature reduction, about 30% lower thermal resistance, and a 30% lower T (temperature rise above ambient) during large file transfer and operation with sustained writes even in ultrathin fanless laptops.

I’m not sure why the xMEMS did simulations instead of testing an actual prototype, since we’re told µCooling samples are available now. Volume production will take a bit longer and is scheduled for Q1 2026. I was only given a short press release with limited technical details compared to what we got for the XMC-2400 chip, but the new “µCooling fan-on-a-chip solution” might have a different design since the dimensions are slightly bigger (9.3 x 7.6 x 1.13mm vs 9.26 x 7.6 x 1.08 mm), or it could be a re-hashed press released for the same chip. The xMEMS website has more details about micro cooling, but it may not be the exact same design used for SSD cooling.

Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress. We also use affiliate links in articles to earn commissions if you make a purchase after clicking on those links.