Boréas Technologies Unlocks Active Cooling for Smartphones

Boréas drivers, together with piezo micropumps and cooling films, promote more efficient active cooling for alternative form-factor mobile devices

Boréas’ Piezo Technology Unlocks Active Cooling for Smartphones. (Photo: Business Wire)

BROMONT, Québec--()--Boréas Technologies, a pioneer in ultra-low-power analog semiconductors, today announced that its piezoelectric (piezo) driver IC, the CapDrive® BOS1921, can activate the piezo micropump-based cooling system in a mobile device using 10x less power than competitive piezo drivers. This extreme power efficiency is a dramatic improvement over other piezo drivers, which often generate more heat than they can eliminate in a micropump-based active cooling solution.

“Piezo micropump-based platforms bring much-needed innovation to cooling our smartphones, particularly to unique form-factor devices such as foldable phones,” said Simon Chaput, founder and CEO of Boréas Technologies. “As an integrated platform—which features the Boréas CapDrive BOS1921 piezo driver, piezo micropumps, and a thin layer of liquid cooling film—the piezo micropump approach is a highly efficient cooling solution that actively disperses the heat from the phone’s hot spots. If unchecked, the heat from these hot spots can cause a phone to malfunction or shut down.

“Piezo-driven cooling solutions have been demonstrated recently inside concept phones,” added Chaput. “After seeing the thermal efficiency and resiliency of this approach, smartphone makers are now taking things one step further: using the piezo micropump-based cooling platform inside mass-production phones.”

In addition to its power efficiency for all smartphone form-factors, the BOS1921 offers a particular architectural advantage to foldable smartphones, which are thinner and hinge in the middle. Unlike rigid vapor-chamber solutions that fracture when the phone bends, the cooling-film layer is flexible, so it keeps working throughout the multiple bend cycles of lifetime usage.

As the number of foldable phones increases—IDC predicts the global market will reach 54.3 million units by 2027, resulting in a CAGR of 30.8% from 2022 to 2027i—demand for BOS1921-based micropump solutions will rise exponentially.

Boreas partners to offer a complete solution

Piezo micropump solutions are ready for mainstream implementations. Boréas is actively collaborating with the industry’s leading providers of micropumps and liquid cooling-films to deliver an integrated piezo micropump solution in high volume to smartphone OEMs.

CapDrive BOS1921: small and power-efficient

Featuring power consumption that is 9-11x lower than other piezo drivers and a miniature footprint of just 2.1 mm x 1.7 mm x 0.625 mm WLSCSP, the CapDrive BOS1921 is ideally suited to resource-constrained smartphones in which small size and low power are essential.

The Boréas CapDrive BOS1921 is currently in mass production for cooling and haptic applications in PC trackpads and mobile devices.

For More Information

Learn more about Boréas piezo micropump solutions at https://www.boreas.ca/pages/piezoelectric-micropumps. For general information on Boréas Technologies, visit https://www.boreas.ca or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boreas-tech/ or contact us by email: info@boreas.ca.

About Boréas Technologies

Boréas Technologies Inc. is an award-winning fabless semiconductor company commercializing ultra-low-power piezo IC platforms in consumer and industrial markets. With origins in research conducted at Harvard University, Boréas is based in Bromont, Québec and is supported by a global distribution network. The company’s CapDrive ICs are ideal for resource-constrained devices such as PC trackpads, smartwatches and fitness trackers, smartphones and gaming phones, VR game controllers and peripherals, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices as well as for automotive applications in which crisp, responsive touch enhances driver safety and comfort.

The Boréas logo and CapDrive are registered trademarks of Boréas Technologies Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

i Source: Worldwide Foldable Phone Forecast Update, 2023–2027, September 2023, IDC.

Contacts

Press
Marc-André Morin, Boréas Technologies
Email: mamorin[at]boreas.ca

Maria Vetrano, Vetrano Communications
Email: maria[at]vetrano.com

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Contacts

Press
Marc-André Morin, Boréas Technologies
Email: mamorin[at]boreas.ca

Maria Vetrano, Vetrano Communications
Email: maria[at]vetrano.com