Forced Physics DCT and Noctua announce research partnership on micro-channel array cooling

A long-term research and development effort to bring JouleForce™ technology from the data centre to desktop PCs and workstations.

Vienna, Austria / Scottsdale, Arizona – 24 September 2026

Noctua, the Austrian manufacturer of premium quality quiet cooling components, and Forced Physics DCT have announced a joint research partnership to explore how Forced Physics’ patented JouleForce™ micro-channel array technology can be brought to desktop PCs and workstations. The collaboration is a long-term research and development effort and is not tied to a specific product or release date.

How JouleForce™ works

JouleForce™ arrays leverage geometry-driven molecular collisions at the channel walls: the boundary layer that limits conventional air cooling never fully forms, so heat is extracted along the entire length of each micro-channel. This allows large amounts of heat to be removed using air alone, without the pumps, tubing and liquid loops of water cooling, at power levels that are becoming difficult to manage with conventional air coolers.

“Forced Physics are advancing the limits in terms of fin-to-air heat transfer, and we are excited to explore what it would take to make that work in a quiet desktop system. The pressure levels this technology requires in today’s implementations are currently supplied by equipment nobody would want on or under their desk, so this is a demanding, long-term engineering task – and one that we are eager to tackle.”

– Roland Mossig, CEO of Noctua

The challenge: the operating point

The central challenge is the operating point. At this stage, the micro-channel geometry that gives the arrays their thermal performance also produces a steep system impedance curve, with a pressure drop an order of magnitude and more above the range covered by conventional axial PC fans; current implementations therefore duct the arrays to industrial blowers, high-speed centrifugal fans or vacuum pumps.

The established means of reaching such pressures – much higher rotational speeds or multi-stage impellers – are ruled out for desktop use by acoustic requirements, and the sealing required to prevent bypass leakage at these pressure levels is difficult to reconcile with the modularity and size constraints of PC cases. Investigating how the necessary static pressure levels can either be reduced or generated within these constraints is the focus of the partnership.

“Desktop and workstation systems pose airflow challenges that differ fundamentally from our data centre deployments. Noctua’s expertise in quiet, high-pressure air movement makes them the ideal partner to solve them with us.”

– Scott Davis, Founder & CEO of Forced Physics DCT

Both companies will report on the collaboration as significant milestones are reached.

About Forced Physics DCT

Forced Physics traces its roots to founder Scott Davis’s work in kinetic theory and accelerating molecular beams, with early proof-of-concept development incubated at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Maryland and the MEMS and Nanotechnology Exchange, an advanced microfabrication ecosystem established with support from DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office. That work helped translate Davis’s research into fabricated prototypes and ultimately the patented JouleForce™ architecture, now being advanced as an air-based thermal platform for AI, high-density computing and other high-power electronic applications. To learn more about the technology, visit ForcedPhysics.com.

About Noctua

Noctua’s award-winning, premium quality quiet cooling components are internationally renowned for their superb acoustics, industry-leading performance-to-noise efficiency and remarkable longevity. Since its foundation in 2005, the Austrian manufacturer’s engineering-first mindset, history of innovations and relentless pursuit of continuous optimisation have become just as iconic as its long-term product support and excellence in customer service. Today, PC enthusiasts and industry clients alike swear by the signature blend of cutting-edge performance, outstanding quietness and ultimate reliability that makes Noctua’s products unique.

Source: official Noctua press release, 24 September 2026.

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