Efficiency

The University of Florida is developing a disruptive thermal management solution proposed for cooling future CPU and GPU chips at unprecedented heat flux and power levels in data centers server racks. The new technology allows for significant future growth in processor power, rejects heat directly to the ambient air external to the data center, and would facilitate adoption within the existing data center infrastructure with a primary liquid cooling loop.

Purdue University, Binghamton University, and Seguente Inc. will develop an innovative chip-level direct two-phase impingement jet cooling solution to drastically enhance overall thermal performance while reducing pumping power. The design includes new algorithms for topology optimization of the cooling structure, novel on-chip direct printing methods for laser powder bed fusion of multi-porosity wicks, and an additively manufactured multi-input\multi-output fluid distribution manifold.

Flexnode will develop a prefabricated, modularly designed EDGE data center that will leverage four key component and system-level technology advancements: a novel manifold microchannel heatsink, a chassis-based hybrid immersion cooling approach, a cost-effective additive manufacturing-enabled dry cooling heat exchanger system, and a topology optimized container housing the entire system.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will develop an innovative cooling paradigm capable of both minimal energy use and maximum cooling power for future servers. Their design integrates high-performance thermal interface materials, coefficient of thermal expansion matched and reliable silicon carbide coolers, topology optimization-based design automation coupled with silicon carbide additive manufacturing, robust and cost-effective single-phase water cooling, and high primary-side temperatures to enable efficient heat dissipation to the ambient.

Raytheon Technologies Research Center will develop Extra Efficient Data Centers with Avionics Cooling Technology (EXTRACT) with a cross-industry collaborative team. Targeted heat removal from high-power processors will be achieved with Ribbon Oscillating Heat Pipes (RHPs). Heat is extracted from servers with integrated, passive, and reliable heat spreading. The RHP technology, with record-low thermal resistance, could enable a transformational reduction in the power consumption of future data centers.

The University of Texas at Arlington and collaborators will develop a novel hybrid cooling technology to address the growing need for advanced thermal management solutions for high-power data centers.

Intel Federal will develop ultra-low-thermal resistance, coral-shaped immersion cooling heat sinks integrated with a 3D vapor chamber cavity for high-power devices. Intel’s design would address the challenge of adapting two-phase immersion cooling by optimizing 3D vapor chambers to spread the heat more effectively. This is paired with innovative boiling enhancement coatings to reduce thermal resistance by promoting high nucleation site density.

As part of their Category A effort, HP will work with partners to develop an aggressive liquid cooling solution that reduces the need for thermal interface material and the number of thermal interfaces between high-power CPUs/GPUs and the coolant, thereby dramatically lowering the package thermal resistance. The proposed approach leverages HP’s inkjet microfluidics platform and relies on first coupling silicon microchannels to a device’s surface, and then by embedding microfluidics deeper into the device as a future step.

JetCool will develop a microconvective cooling technology that combines and optimizes two distinct cooling approaches to provide the highest levels of energy efficiency in data centers. JetCool’s micro-convective cooling modules lower CPU temperatures, reducing leakage current and resulting in power savings of 8-10% while an in-server radiator eliminates the need for server-dedicated air cooling in the data center to provide significant additional energy savings.

The University of Missouri will develop a hybrid mechanical-capillary-drive two-phase loop that could serve as an ideal cooling solution for data centers. The proposed technology offers numerous advantages over existing phase-change processes such as flow boiling and condensation, including dual-mode operation, low thermal resistance, high heat flux, low pumping power consumption, high power density, reliable operation, and a fully scalable design.