Imagine that we can cool the most powerful components of modern data centers without using fans, compressors or pumps that consume huge amounts of energy. A group of engineers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has transformed this vision into a tangible reality, present A refrigeration technology that has already set a primeror. Their system, based on a special fiber membrane, managed to manage a thermal load of more than 800, Textt/CM2, one of the highest values ever registered for a passive cooling solution.
The secret of this innovation lies in a process that is as old as effective: evaporation. Unlike traditional systems, this technology Use a network of small interconnected pores in the fibrous membrane. Thanks to the widespread action, a liquid is distributed over the surface. Evaporates, this liquid Draws heat from the chips below in a natural and quiet way. Although evaporation cooling is not new, its application in environments has always been a challenge as extreme as those of the latest generation of processors. The previous attempts had collided with a fundamental problem: hidden too small pores, while too large pores caused a chaotic and inefficient cooking.
The UCSD team found the Perfect solution, Engineering of a membrane with pores of the ideal size. Strangely enough, these membranes were originally designed for filtration. “We understood that their unique structural characteristics, with interconnected pores of the right dimension, could make them ideal for efficient evaporation cooling,” says Renkun Chen, professor of mechanical engineering and co-author of the study. “What surprised us was that, with the right mechanical reinforcement, not only resisted the high heat flow, but they behaved extremely well”.
With the global expansion of the cloud infrastructure and the unstoppable increase in the AI systems, Data centers are becoming increasingly energetic. The cooling of these structures already represents up to 40% of their total energy consumption, according to the estimates of the US Department of Energy. The situation is intended to worsen: the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that the global energy consumption of data centers could more than double by 2030, largely driven by the need to expel heat.
The results obtained in the laboratory are extremely promising and the system He has shown that he is stable for hours under thermal stress. The research team now works to integrate this membrane into the “cold plates”, the direct contact plates with processors such as GPU and CPU. A startup was also started to market this technology. If it was successful, this innovation could drastically reduce the energy and water print of the data centers, offering a fundamental tool to support the digital future and is fed by AI without excessive weighing on our means.
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