I'm a little confused by these two quotes.
"The first ever solid state thermal solution" "Inside AirJet are tiny membranes that vibrate at ultrasonic frequency"
How is it solid state if it has moving parts?
"The first ever solid state thermal solution" "Inside AirJet are tiny membranes that vibrate at ultrasonic frequency"
How is it solid state if it has moving parts?
This is more like a one part cast/deposited with some degree of elastic deformation.
Supposedly a lot more reliable.
Not in my book. The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear "solid-state" and "cooling" in a sentence is "peltier element". The name "AirJet" gave it already away though, that this is likely something different.
They mention that those are MEMS membranes in the presentation [1]. But it also sounds like Airjet developers (or marketers) count MEMS membranes as solid-state, and piezoelectric fans as not, while I wonder where the line is.
This video was really insightful, thanks. Especially interesting was, that they use an effect called jet impingement that is also used in jet engines.
> "But it also sounds like Airjet developers (or marketers) count MEMS membranes as solid-state, and piezoelectric fans as not, while I wonder where the line is."
I think I can imagine where this distinction comes from. MEMS devices can usually be manufactured in facilities and with materials and processes very similar to those used for producing semiconductor chips like processors. Piezoelectric elements, on the other hand, require special materials and their production doesn't fit very well into the common semiconductor manufacturing process. Now, the step to call everything traditional semiconductor industry related "solid-state" is not that big.
Silicon crystals are naturally solid-state, car batteries and most can capacitors are liquid-state with their electrolyte, leaving many vacuum tubes no other choice but to be gaseous-state.
Now these air chips don't have any electrolyte so that rules out liquid, and all the components are solid materials so the component itself is actually solid-state, and so are other MEMS devices, even though they have moving parts.
Like an electric motor which is just iron, copper, and steel, a key solid-state electrical component.
It's still just a motorized fan.
Three states of matter is basically a fairy-tale we use as a first, easily understandable basic working model of matter. In reality there are so many states that Wikipedia has a dedicated page to list them: "List of states of matter" [1]
This is also the reason why every physicist cringes when the usual popular science mags announce the discovery of "a fourth state of matter" about once every year.
> "Silicon crystals are naturally solid-state"
Solid room temperature silicon can be in a crystalline state or an amorphous state. While amorphous silicon may appear solid it has many properties of a liquid and thats where the word "liquid" in LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) comes from. So, its not that easy.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_of_matter
I'm trying to narrow it down to the obvious choices ;)
Physicists are the experts on this kind of thing and I just go along with the choice they made when they started calling electronic components "solid-state" to begin with.
My apologies for being so controversial.
Other than electrolytic capacitors, both peripherals are electrically solid-state.
Even the helium in some HDDs is for physical purposes, not as a gaseous electrical element.
Extending "solid-state" to mass storage devices that have neither a rotational device nor the necessary internal gap (air or partial vacuum) for either rotation or actuators feels natural…to me.
Why stop there, a servo with a piece of membrane would also be solid state.
Why stop there, a motor with a membrane..
This definition makes no sense to me.
The above are electromechanical parts. Piezos are somewhat an exception because electricity directly leads to a parts deformation without magnetic field moving a component of that part in an electric field. In fact a piezo is just one part with two contacts.
>Why stop there, a servo with a piece of membrane would also be solid state.
>Why stop there, a motor with a membrane..
>Piezos
All Correct.
Even when they are electrically powered, hydraulic and pneumatic servos are not usually liquid-state or gaseous-state electrical devices except for any vacuum tubes or electrolytic components.
When the electricity flows only through solid materials like copper, carbon, or silicon, and doesn't (intentionally) flow across things like liquids, air gaps, or evacuated spaces, that's solid-state.
(1) The gaseous / solid meaning relevant for tubes vs. transistors.
(2) The mechanical / no moving parts meaning.
Two examples of devices that use the second meaning:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_storage
The SS in SSD means it doesn't have moving parts (platter, head) like a hard drive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_relay
The SS in solid state relay means it's not electro-mechanical like a relay.
In this case (the cooling chip), the second meaning is obviously the correct one because it is being compared to fans, which have moving parts.
Says who?