Novel Concepts' IsoSkin dissipates heat without the fan noise

Novel Concepts is probably just hopping on the "stop the overheating" bandwagon, but nevertheless, the firm's latest, um, novel idea is to eliminate those bulky, air-sucking PC fans by creating an ultrathin heat spreading material to coat toasty parts. Dubbed IsoSkin, the material comes in at just 500-microns thick, and the company insinuates that it could eventually be used to replace the "outer skin of portable electronics," further doing away with the need for internal heatsinks and fans. Notably, the sheets are purportedly able to "dissipate heat 20 times more effectively than copper," or transferring about 250-watts, while weighing in 60-percent lighter than the material it hopes to leapfrog. Utilizing planar capillary technology, the IsoSkins could reportedly be "manufactured for pennies per square centimeter," and considering that several microprocessor and electronics companies are already testing this stuff out, maybe the next wave of lappies won't require firefighter-grade pants to use safely.

[Via ExtremeTech]

[telepheedian @ Feb 22nd 2007 8:15PM]

Or maybe they will. If it is pushing the heat dissipation to the outside, it could turn a macbook pro into a mini warzone.

[Brad @ Feb 22nd 2007 8:49PM]

IsoSkin looked really cool (no pun intended) when I first saw it, about 3yrs ago.
As I recall it was "currently being sampled and tested by various microprocessor and electronics companies" back then too.
But hey, I see they've added some snazzy charts to their website in the interim, so great progress appears to be being made.

[matt @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:46PM]

500 microns sounds a lot cooler than just saying half a millimeter, doesn't it?

[JB @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:50PM]

"dissipate heat 20 times more effectively than copper,"

So I should be smelling my burning flesh 20x more quickly?

[Juaquin @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:15PM]

Can I buy a sheet of it to apply to my existing heatsink?

[Brad @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:15PM]

No, that was an enquiry I made years ago.

[pbase @ Feb 23rd 2007 4:38AM]

Forget about electronics, how about athletic clothing?

[Juaquin @ Feb 23rd 2007 9:41PM]

No wonder this stuff hasn't gone anywhere in years.

[isoskin @ Feb 24th 2007 12:11PM]

Discovery can be very slow; what seems simple, like the plastic soda-pop bottle, took DuPont 10 years and millions of dollars.

IsoSkin is a very complex technology, it's phase-change and capillary physics in a vacuum. Fortunately, we (novel concepts, inc.) are masters at phase-change and capillary physics in a vacuum, and can create parts that have extremely high performance (much higher than recently reported). Unfortunately, IsoSkin is not immune from the standard dichotomy of “higher performance has a higher price tag”.

This recent breakthrough, was a significant price improvement; It will allow IsoSkin access into the more price sensitive markets, such as microprocessors and consumer electronics.

[Fusanobu Nakamura @ Mar 7th 2007 4:46AM]

I got quite interested in IsoSkin by Novel Concepts. Could I get an actual sample for a performance evaluation at our lab? Thank you very much.