Piezoelectric air actuators for electronic thermal management: a bibliometric and comprehensive review

With the continuous rise in heat flux density in high-power electronic devices, conventional cooling strategies increasingly struggle to achieve an effective balance among system footprint, noise, energy consumption, and heat transfer performance. Piezoelectric air actuators have therefore emerged as a promising active air-cooling technology for electronic thermal management. This review examines 660 relevant publications indexed in the Web of Science from 2000 to 2026, identified through topic-based screening and citation tracing. The bibliometric analysis systematically examines the field's developmental trajectory, research collaboration networks, and evolving research hotspots. The technical analysis also comprehensively and critically examines the structural evolution, flow mechanisms, and heat transfer characteristics of cantilever-type piezoelectric fans, zero-net-mass-flux piezoelectric synthetic jet actuators, and non-zero-net-mass-flux piezoelectric synthetic jet actuators. A complete energy-transfer chain from electrical input to heat removal is established, and a multidimensional evaluation framework integrating flow, thermal, and acoustic performance is further proposed. By linking academic advances with industrial practice, this review indicates that ultrasonic-frequency piezoelectric synthetic jet actuators may offer application-specific advantages for high-heat-flux, low-noise, thin, array-scalable, and embedded electronic cooling systems. Finally, current limitations include insufficient understanding of multiphysics coupling, inadequate system-level evaluation criteria, limited array coordination, and inadequate operational stability. Commercialization is further constrained by manufacturing repeatability and system-level competitiveness. Future research should prioritize energy efficiency, long-term reliability, and versatile applicability, providing theoretical guidance for the development of compact piezoelectric active air-cooling technologies.