GE announces new thin-as-a-credit card cooling system for ultrathin laptops and tablets

Anyone who's ever looked inside a computer or laptop at the hardware knows that there are a lot of components inside the chassis of computing systems that take up a lot of space. Typically, one of the thickest parts of many computer systems is the heatsink that keeps the processor cool. Many of those heatsinks require big blocks of copper or aluminum and cooling fans.

GE has unveiled a new cooling technology that is as thin as a credit card and will enable new ultrathin tablets and laptops. GE says that the new cooling technology for computer systems was adapted from tech originally developed for commercial jet engines. The technology is called Dual Piezoelectric Cooling Jets or DCJ for short.

The technology behaves as a micro-fluidic bellows to provide high velocity jets of air to cool electronic components. The turbulent airflow that the system creates helps to improve heat transfer more than 10 times that of natural convection. The cooling solution is only 4 mm tall, which is a 50% decrease in height compared to conventional cooling assemblies used in electronic devices today.

GE says that this technology is perfect for cooling future tablet and ultrabook products of less than 6 mm thick. Another big upside to this technology is that it needs no fan so computer systems and gadgets built using the hardware will be quieter. GE says that it has demonstration kits for OEMs that want to evaluate the technology. There is no indication of products coming to market using the DCJ system at this time.