Plasma-powered solid-state laptop cooler to debut at CES — new cooler design uses ionized gas and electrical discharge to generate airflow
This cooler operates on electrohydrodynamics
Deep-tech giant YPlasma is preparing to announce a new solid-state cooling solution for laptops at CES 2026. According to a blog post the company published, the new cooler design can cool laptop devices at an "ultra-quiet" 17 dBA using the world's first DBD plasma actuators for consumer electronics. The company also announced that this same cooling design will be used to address the cooling needs of power-hungry AI-focused servers.
This new cooler design uses "Dielectric Barrier Discharge plasma actuators" to generate airflow without any moving components. According to YPlasma's literature review of the technology: "Wind is generated by ionizing a thin layer of ambient gas adjacent to a dielectric surface..." YPlasma's coolers are taking advantage of corona discharge, an electrohydrodynamic phenomenon, to generate wind using electricity.
The solid-state nature of this cooler design also enabled YPlasma to make it incredibly tinny. The cooler's actuators can measure as thin as 200 microns, making it allegedly well-suited for integration directly onto heat sinks or internal components.
What makes YPlasma's design different from Frore System's AirJet solid-state coolers is the integration of plasma into the cooling solution. YPlasma claims that others have explored ionic cooling using corona discharge, but it has made strides in making it safe for consumer use. A big part of this is the use of a dielectric barrier to limit harmful ozone byproducts from being exposed to the surrounding environment.
If this cooling design sounds at all familiar, Frore Systems developed the world's first solid-state cooler a few years back and has since seen its cooler designs implemented in small-form-factor PCs and laptops. Solid-state cooling is a new, growing category of cooler designs that can cool electronics without any moving parts, providing super-quiet operation and low energy consumption in incredibly small form factors. But instead of using plasma, the AirJet uses ultrasonic frequencies to generate airflow.
YPlasma has not released any precise statistics on the cooling capabilities of its new solid-state laptop cooler, but it's likely to be as competitive as Frore System's solid-state AirJet coolers, based on YPlasma's claim that its cooling tech will be an effective solution for power-hungry AI servers. The company will have a live demo of the device at CES 2026 starting at 4 PM on January 7th.
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Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.
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Roland Of Gilead ReplyWind is generated by ionizing a thin layer of ambient gas adjacent to a dielectric surface...
Wind!? I hope it's not like those dreaded windmills that kill all the birds and is very nasty!
Am I being pedantic!? Should 'wind' be replaced by airflow?
Either way, it's good that companies like YPlasma are beginning to look at other forms of cooling. The standard 2 fan and heat pipes setup will hold back practically every laptop, and are far too noisy. If they were able to truly make a gaming laptop quiet, they would sell a lot more. It's one of the major drawbacks for me with gaming laptops. -
bit_user Reply
In a way, AirJet does have moving parts. They say it relies on MEMS membranes. By definition, MEMS is a moving part and I wonder if the membrane is subject to any sort of degradation with age or use.The article said:Solid-state cooling is a new, growing category of cooler designs that can cool electronics without any moving parts, providing super-quiet operation and low energy consumption in incredibly small form factors. But instead of using plasma, the AirJet uses ultrasonic frequencies to generate airflow. -
bit_user Reply
I think you can't get away from moving lots of air, in order to dissipate a lot of heat. That will always make a significant amount of noise, especially when confined to a narrow space.Roland Of Gilead said:It's one of the major drawbacks for me with gaming laptops.
Another reason not to get too excited about this new announcement, just yet, is that their post doesn't say how many Watts they're able to dissipate at any noise level, much less at the claimed 17 dBA.
BTW, a side note about noise vs. moving parts: I used to work with a guy who hated noisy laptops and eagerly bought an ultra-thin 2-in-1 model that had no fan (I think it was Lenovo Yoga). He later told me that he found the sound its heatpipes make to be quite annoying. Yes, heat pipes & vapor chambers make a sizzling and popping sounds, as the working fluid boils off. Not sure if he was more or less annoyed by that than he would've been by a quiet fan. I dislike noisy laptops, but have have had a few that are generally quite well-mannered. -
Notton AFAIK Airjet/Frore uses technology related to this.Reply
97t7Xj_iBv0The parts move, but within their elasticity range, so they will never fail from fatigue.
You may or may not be able to hear them vibrating.
Where as Ionized air has no moving parts at all.
However...
1. It uses a ton of power
2. It has almost no static pressure, meaning a cramped laptop is exactly oppposite of where you want to use it.
3. It ionizes air, and can produce ozone. Ozone is not good for plastics, or electronics when exposed constantly.
4. The DC-to-AC inverter for ionizing air can produce noise similar to hissing or coil whine. It's usually worse when there are contaminants, like dust.
5. The cathode/anode attract and collect a serious amount of dust.
Ion air technology was literally sold as a room purifier, and is still sold as such.
So I am highly skeptical when someone else tries to sell it as a cooling solution for a laptop and claims it won't collect dust.
7U-Li7ZTyEY -
bit_user Reply
You reached that conclusion based on what?Notton said:AFAIK Airjet/Frore uses technology related to this.
And why do they refer to their technology as having a "membrane"? Where does the membrane enter the picture?
If you're saying it's an inefficient way to move air, then conservation of energy says it must therefore produce either a lot of noise or a lot of waste heat. If waste heat, then it would make a terrible cooling solution!Notton said:Where as Ionized air has no moving parts at all.
However...
1. It uses a ton of power
That sort of depends. If it's used only in the lowest power devices, perhaps it can be used where the ionization happens in a cooling plate, and you therefore wouldn't have a dense fin stack to force it through. The air path could be designed so it's straight and has no choke points.Notton said:2. It has almost no static pressure, meaning a cramped laptop is exactly oppposite of where you want to use it.
They claim to have some sort of solution for reducing ozone emissions. Clearly, this is an area of concern and something I'd want to know more about, before buying a product that uses it.Notton said:3. It ionizes air, and can produce ozone. Ozone is not good for plastics, or electronics when exposed constantly.
Also, ozone is considered a air pollutant, at low altitudes, and contributes to smog.
I'd need good intake filtration. If the intake were disproportionately large, then you could use an extremely fine filter without requiring too much static pressure from the device.Notton said:5. The cathode/anode attract and collect a serious amount of dust.
Frore claimed to have some solution to dust buildup that I think involved periodically reversing the airflow, to automatically dislodge any builtup dust. You couldn't use that for cleaning the filter, but maybe it could push dust off the ionizer.