Novel Makes ThinSink, 25 Times Better than Today's CPU Coolers

2.73 degrees C per watt. 20 watt CPU will heat to temperature 55 C (or 100 F) higher than ambient. Also, all that "volumetric cooling efficiency is said to be about 25 times better than the best CPU heatsinks of today" does not take into account cooling fan (and without fan this eficciency will drop from "very poor" to "terrible").
My opinion - just point the cooling fan directly on CPU, it will be much more efficient than this "revolutionary invention".

ThinSink's 2400% improvement in volumetric cooling efficiency, includes fan and motor, and is achieved by rotating (via motor) a thin toroid (circular fan disc), which generates an axial to radial fluid flow field (see animation), and having the heat sink (credit card sized plate with aperture) parallel and within the radial portion of the flow field. The local radial velocity near the 40mm diameter rotating toroid's perimeter, at 6,000 rpm is ~12.6 m/s. This high velocity radial flow field enjoys further air volume (for addition cooling) due to entraining remote air (Bernoulli Effect). The volumetric cooling efficiency of today's leading overclocking heat sinks is ~0.0032 W/°C/cc, compared to 0.081 W/°C/cc for the credit card sized ThinSink.

Heat sink performance is measured as resistance, which is typically °C/W (degrees Celsius per watt), which means, “How many degrees Celsius, above ambient, the heat sink will increase, for every watt applied”. The smaller the better

The reciprocal of resistance is conductance, which for heat sinks is typically W/°C (watts per degree Celsius), which means, “How many watts can be applied to a heat sink, while the heat sink temperature rises only one degree Celsius above ambient”. The greater the better

Volumetric Cooling Efficiency is measured as conductance per volume, which is typically W/°C/cc (watts per degree Celsius per cubic centimeter), which means, “How many watts can be applied to a heat sink, while the heat sink temperature rises only one degree Celsius above ambient, divided by the heat sink volume in cubic centimeters”. The greater the better

Example: If a heat sink has a thermal resistance of 2.0 °C/W, and its size is 5cm by 5cm by 5cm, then the conductance equals 1/2.0, which is 0.5 W/°C, and since the volume is 125cc (5x5x5), then the volumetric cooling efficiency is (0.5/125), which is 0.004 W/°C/cc.

I hope this helps.

Ok, now the question: Mentioned thermal performance (2.73 degrees Centigrade per Watt) means 1/2.73 = 0.366 W/deg C. Is it measured for whole heatsink ? If so, then it measures about 4.5 cc. 85mm*55mm*0.75mm equals about 3.5 cc. Does that means than the fan have only 1cc volume and is less than 1 mm high?
Or... you just have measured the volume without the fan? :)

Second question is - what with the volume of airducts? You still need to inject cool air into the heatsink and remove warm air as well (possibly needing another fan to do it). Since this cooling solution can be used only for low power processors of netbooks/notebooks (just 30W thermal power will be too much for the heatsink), you will need to incorporate airducts into the chassis as well, reducing effective efficiency/volume coefficient even further.

So - it can be a solution for low power PC's, but with airducts taken into account, it will have comparable efficiency to todays solution - in best case.

By the way - 2004 Gigabyte 3D cooler ultra had about 0,31 W/K @2000RPM , with about 600 cc volume - that gives 0.0052 W/K/cc , more than you mentioned as 'today's leading overclocking heat sinks' .

PS. Can you record the sound of this heatsink working @6k/10k RPM?...

The fan is the circular disc in the center. The heat sink is the credit card sized part with the hole in the center. 4.5cc = heat sink, fan, and motor.

There are no air ducts.

8,5 cm * 5,5cm * 0.075cm = 3,5 cc. That means the aluminium body alone, without fan, measures 3,5 cc, leaving 1 cc for fan total volume. The fan has a diameter of 40mm, that gives aroud 12,5 square centimeters of surface - so if the volume of the fan is 1 cc, that means total height is less than 0,1 centimeter...
On the picture it looks at least 10 times more (along with three "legs" supporting the fan).

Second thing: Some space is needed for air to circulate (that dramatically increase the total volume needed for the heatsink), also air ducts are nessesery for removing hot air (unless it works in large chassis - but then there is no need for supersmall heatsinks).

So - the real volume needed to install is around 18-20 cc according to the picture. Volume needed for proper operation would at least twice as large.