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In cablingAC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all things hardware, including phones, audio products, storage servers, and networking equipment.
Thermal management is one of the biggest problems with wearables; Limited space in devices like smart watches and glasses precludes conventional solutions, such as a custom coating used on phones to divert heat away from internal parts. That’s simply not possible to do on a small PCB that houses all the parts needed for the XR glasses, and this will only be a problem as these glasses start to have additional features and AI utilities on the device.
This was a problem in RayNeo’s X3 Pro; While smart glasses clearly have a lot of potential, they are prone to overheating and the limited battery means they are not designed to last all day. There have been decent advances with battery technology as brands begin to use silicon batteries in portable devices: the Xiaomi Watch 5 It uses a silicon battery and lasts twice as long as other Wear OS smartwatches, and xMEMS now has a thermal management solution aimed at smaller devices.
I am familiar with xMEMS products; the brand pioneered solid-state audio drivers and used products like SoundPEATS Air5 Pro+It’s clear that the technology allows for higher audio fidelity in a smaller size. xMEMS does the same with heat dissipation; The brand introduced its all-silicon cooling solutions at MWC 2026 and I got a hands-on demonstration to see the effectiveness of the technology in action.
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The brand showed the XMC-2400an active cooling solution that generates enough airflow to move a traditional fan at 35 cubic centimeters per second. The product is designed for use in portable devices and has inherent advantages over traditional cooling systems: as it is made entirely of silicon, it is significantly thinner, at just 1mm, and is highly efficient – only requiring 30mW of power.
The best part is that it is IP58 dust and water resistant, so wearable device manufacturers can easily integrate it into their products without any problems; If anything, this is one of the main reasons we don’t see any products with active cooling in this category. In the demonstration, xMEMS installed the
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That’s a big deal when you consider the size of the product, and the inherent design means wearable brands don’t need to sacrifice battery size or other internal parts to accommodate the cooling solution. It’s an interesting use case, and since the XR glasses get custom waveguides and improved features like integrated navigation and AR capabilities, having an efficient cooling solution makes all the difference.
While xMEMS did not disclose additional information, the brand’s vice president and general manager of thermal management, Mike Housholder, shared that it has secured design wins and that a consumer product with Fortunately, we don’t have to wait too long.
