etaPERF™ motor

AAO Frame

Our AAO (Advanced Acoustic Optimisation) frames feature integrated anti-vibration pads as well as our proprietary Stepped Inlet Design and Inner Surface Microstructures, both of which further refine the fan’s performance/noise efficiency.

Anti-Stall Knobs

The NF-S12A’s Anti-Stall Knobs reduce flow separation phenomena in medium to high impedance situations and thereby increase the fan’s stall margin. This means that the NF-S12A is even more versatile than its renowned predecessor and can achieve better performance on heatsinks and radiators.

Bevelled Blade Tips

Reducing critical rotor stator interaction, the NF-S12B's and NF-B9's Bevelled Blade Tips permit to combine a higher blade surface area with quieter operation and thus form a cornerstone of the fans' outstanding efficiency.

Flow Acceleration Channels

By speeding up the airflow at the crucial outer blade regions, Flow Acceleration Channels reduce suction side flow separation and thus lead to better efficiency and lower vortex noise.

Focused Flow™ Frame

Designed for pressure demanding applications such as heatsinks and radiators, the Focused Flow™ frame features eleven stator guide vanes that straighten, channel and focus the airflow, which allows the NF-F12 to rival the performance of conventional fans running at much faster speeds.

Inner Surface Microstructures

With the tips of the fan blades ploughing through the boundary layer created by the Inner Surface Microstructures, flow separation from the suction side of the blades is significantly suppressed, which results in reduced blade passing noise and improved airflow and pressure efficiency.

Metal bearing shell

In order to guarantee the highest possible degree of manufacturing precision, minimum tolerance and excellent long-term stability, our newest 120 and 140mm fans sport a CNC milled bearing shell made entirely from brass.

Custom-designed PWM IC with SCD

Our custom-designed NE-FD1 PWM IC integrates our Smooth Commutation Drive (SCD) technology. By providing smoother torque impulses, SCD suppresses PWM switching noises and thus makes the fan quieter at low speeds.

Smooth Commutation Drive

The latest version of our advanced Smooth Commutation Drive system ensures superb running smoothness by eliminating torque variations and switching noises. This makes our fans remarkably quiet even at very close distances.

SSO-Bearing

Combining the proven concept of hydrodynamic bearing with an additional magnet that supports the self-stabilisation of the rotor axis, our time-tested SSO-Bearing technology has become synonymous with supremely quiet operation and exceptional long-term stability.

SSO2 Bearing

SSO2 is the further optimised second generation of our renowned, time-tested SSO bearing. With SSO2, the rear magnet is placed closer to the axis to provide even better stabilisation, precision and durability.

Stepped Inlet Design

Our Stepped Inlet Design adds turbulence to the influx in order to facilitate the transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow, which reduces tonal intake noise, improves flow attachment and increases suction capacity, especially in space restricted environments.

Vortex-Control Notches

Vortex-Control Notches split up trailing edge vortices and thus spread the fan’s noise emission over a wider range of frequencies. This measure makes the fan sound more pleasant to the human ear.

Sterrox® liquid-crystal polymer (LCP)

Noctua’s novel Sterrox® liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) compound features extreme tensile strength, an exceptionally low thermal expansion coefficient and dampening characteristics that are ideal for reducing resonance and vibration phenomena in advanced fan-blade designs.

etaPERF™ motor

SupraTorque™

Most fans become slightly slower when working against back pressure such as on heatsinks and radiators, which results in reduced performance. Enabled by the new NE-FD6 driver IC, Noctua’s SupraTorque™ technology allows the fan to leverage additional torque headroom when required in order to keep its RPM speed at the desired level no matter the airflow resistance, ensuring consistent performance even in the most demanding conditions.

etaPERF™ motor

Noctua’s new etaPERF™ motor sets new standards in energy efficiency thanks to its extremely low electric impedance and the latest NE-FD6 drive system with its integrated, ultra-sensitive Hall effect sensor that provides super-precise commutation performance. This not only enables it to convert a minimal electric input into a maximum power-output with hardly any losses, but also works in tandem with Noctua’s proven Smooth Commutation Drive 2 technology to make the etaPERF™ motor run near-inaudible.

Derived from the Greek letter η (“eta”) that is used as a symbol for efficiency in engineering (η = power input / power output), etaPERF™ stands for a combination of unprecedented energy efficiency with state-of-the-art performance. Compared to Noctua’s previous single-phase fan motors that are driven by the NE-FD1 IC, the new etaPERF™ class motors with NE-FD6 can achieve significantly higher torque at the same power draw or, conversely, require less electrical energy to achieve the same torque values.

While the exact efficiency gains between NE-FD1 based motors and NE-FD6 based etaPERF™ vary based on aspects such as fan model, fan speed and flow resistance, the average improvements are in the range of 10-15%. For example, an NF-A14 fan running at 2000rpm is around 13% more energy efficient using the new etaPERF™ motor:

The key to the superior efficiency of the etaPERF™ motors is the ultra-precise integrated Hall effect sensor of the NE-FD6 IC. The increased accuracy in sensing the fan’s rotor position enables the NE-FD6 to apply torque impulses with unprecedented precision, thereby reducing switching losses to an absolute minimum and ensuring super-smooth, non-cogging commutation behaviour. Combined with the proven Smooth Commutation Drive 2 technology, this enables etaPERF™ motors to set new standards both in energy efficiency (torque per Watt) and quietness of operation.