A new ultra compact cooling chip has arrived for wearable tech. The xMEMS XMC 1200 features a solid state design that pumps air without blades to cool down smart glasses. But manufacturers will have to wait until late 2027 for mass production models to arrive.
Traditional fans are too bulky for the slim frames of smart glasses. To solve this problem, xMEMS designed a cooling system occupying just 46 square millimeters of space. Instead of a spinning fan, the silicon chip uses a microscopic membrane that vibrates under electric voltage to push air. This solid state setup reduces internal temperatures by 10 degrees Celsius under a 1 watt heat load.
Keeping power draw low is essential for battery powered wearables. This cooling chip consumes just 70 milliwatts of energy during operation. Improved thermal management is becoming vital as smart glasses run increasingly heavy artificial intelligence applications. Software of this type causes processors to run hot, which limits overall device performance. Active cooling could prevent these hardware bottlenecks entirely.
Selected hardware manufacturers can already access engineering samples of the silicon chip to test in their designs. The general public will not see the technology in retail devices for some time. Broad commercial availability is planned for the fourth quarter of 2027 when mass production officially begins.
