xMEMS Labs on Thursday said it has extended its fan-on-a-chip cooling technology to solid-state drives (SSDs), introducing what it calls the first in-drive active cooling solution for enterprise and consumer storage devices.
The move targets thermal performance bottlenecks in high-density AI data centers and compact laptop PCs, where traditional passive cooling methods have struggled to keep pace with increasing data throughput demands.
The company’s µCooling platform uses monolithic silicon MEMS air pumps to deliver localized airflow to heat-generating components within the SSD, such as NAND flash and controller chips. Unlike conventional cooling, the solid-state design includes no motors or mechanical wear, allowing for integration into space-constrained SSD formats including E3.S and M.2.
“SSDs are hitting thermal limits that reduce performance. µCooling mitigates this by actively cooling from inside the drive,” said Mike Housholder, Vice President of Marketing at xMEMS.
In enterprise environments, E3.S SSDs operating at 9.5W thermal design power or higher often encounter throttling during sustained workloads. Thermal simulations with µCooling showed a 3W heat removal capacity, average temperature reductions of more than 18%, and a 25% decrease in thermal resistance, the company said.
In consumer laptops, particularly ultrathin models with limited airflow, the technology is expected to lower temperature rise by up to 30% and increase thermal headroom by as much as 50%.
The announcement comes amid rapid growth in SSD demand. Market research firm IDC forecasts a 21.9% compound annual growth rate in SSD shipments through 2028, driven by AI infrastructure, edge computing, and personal computing requirements.
µCooling samples are available now, with volume production targeted for the first quarter of 2026.
xMEMS, based in San Jose, California, is privately held and known for its MEMS-based speaker and actuator technologies. Its latest cooling innovation is part of a broader push to enable solid-state thermal management in densely packed electronics.
