Engineers of the University of California San Diego have developed a new cooling technology that could significantly improve the energy efficiency of data centers and powerful electronics. The technology has a specially designed fiber membrane that passively eliminates the heat by evaporation. It offers a promising alternative to conventional cooling systems such as fans, heat sinks and liquid pumps. It could also reduce the water consumption associated with many current cooling systems.
Progress is described in a paper published on June 13th Joules.
While artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing continue to expand, the demand for data processing – and the heat it generates is expanding. Currently, the cooling is up to 40% of the total energy consumption of a data center. If the trends continue, global energy consumption for cooling could more than double by 2030.
The new evaporation cooling technology could help to contain this trend. It uses an inexpensive fiber membrane with a network of tiny, interconnected pores that pull the coolant over its surface using the capillary effect. When the liquid evaporates, it efficiently removes the heat from the electronics below – no additional energy required. The membrane is located on micro channels above the electronics, absorbs liquid that flows through the channels and has efficiently derived the heat.
“Compared to conventional air or liquid cooling, evaporation can dissolve a higher heat flow and at the same time consume less energy,” said Rennkun Chen, professor of mechanical engineering and aerospace technology at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, which was headed by Professors Shengqiang Cai and Abhishek Saha. Machine and aviation technology Ph.D. Student TianShi Feng and postdoctoral researcher Yu Pei, both members of the Chen Research Group, are common authors of the study.
Many applications are currently relying on the evaporation for cooling. Heat tubes in laptops and evaporators in air conditioning systems are some examples, explained Chen. However, it was a challenge to use it effectively to use high -performance electronics. Earlier attempts with porous membranes – the high surfaces that are ideal for evaporation – were unsuccessful because their pores were either too small, which they are clogging or too big they would trigger undesirable cooking. “Here we use porous fiber membranes with coexistent pores with the right size,” said Chen. This design achieves efficient evaporation without these disadvantages.
With the tested variable thermal flows, the membrane achieved the record performance. It managed thermal flow of more than 800 watts of heat per square centimeter – one of the highest values that have ever been recorded for this type of cooling system. It also turned out over several hours after operation.
“This success shows the potential to redefine materials for completely new applications,” said Chen. “These fiber membranes were originally designed for the filtration, and nobody had previously examined their use in the evaporation. We realized that their unique structural properties associated with each other and the right pore size could make it ideal for efficient evaporation cooling. made the hard heat and the lower liquid. “
While the current results are promising, the technology is still well below its theoretical border. The team is now working on refining the membrane and optimizing the performance. The next steps include integration in prototypes of cold plates, which are flat components that attach to chips such as CPUs and GPUs to replace heat. The team also starts a startup company to commercialize the technology.
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (grants CMMI-1762560 and DMR-2005181). Some of the work was carried out at the San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure (SDNI) on UC San Diego, a member of the national nanotechnology coordinated infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant ECCS-2025752).
Operation: A patent that was submitted with this work in connection with this work of the regents of the University of California (PCT application No. PCT/US24/46923). The authors explain that they have no other competing interests.