Si Microfluid Cooler With Jet-Slot Array for Server Processor Direct Liquid Cooling

• Published in: IEEE transactions on components, packaging, and manufacturing technology (2011) packaging, and manufacturing technology (2011), 2020-02, Vol.10 (2), p.255-262
• Main Authors: Han, Yong, Lau, Boon Long, Tang, Gongyue, Chen, Haoran, Zhang, Xiaowu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brittleness; Computer centers; Computer simulation; Cooling; Cooling rate; Cooling systems; Cross flow; Data center; Data centers; direct liquid cooling; drain-slot array; Energy costs; Etching; Flow velocity; Heat; Heat sinks; Heating; Heating systems; Information technology; jet-slot array; Liquid cooling; Low temperature resistance; microfluid cooler; Microprocessors; Pin fins; Plates (structural members); Power consumption; server processor; Servers; Silicon; Thermal resistance
• ISSN: 2156-3950; 2156-3985
• DOI: 10.1109/TCPMT.2019.2933864

With the rapid growth of information technology (IT), the requirement of higher computing performance results in a much higher power density in data center server. A Si microfluid cooler with jet-slot array has been developed for direct liquid cooling of a server processor in a data center to handle increased heating power and maintain stable and uniform thermal performance. To mitigate the energy cost of the cooling system, the developed liquid cooling solution can enable aggressive heat removal capability with a low power consumption requirement. A stacked Si cooler of three plates and four different layer structures has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The novel heat sink includes jet-slot array, drain-slot array, and multiple pin fins. By overcoming the negative cross-flow effect, a high heat transfer rate has been obtained, covering the whole cooling area. With a volume flow rate of 0.5 L/min, 150-W chip heating power can be dissipated while maintaining the maximum chip temperature rise of ~15 °C. A chip temperature variation of 5% has been realized, suggesting much desirable cooling uniformity for the whole chip. With the Si structure, this liquid cooling solution can be directly implemented onto the chip, and the thermal path can be sharply shortened, which enable a decreased thermal resistance between the cold plate and the heat source. Great agreement has been obtained between the experimental results and the simulation results. The developed direct liquid solution with Si cooler shows guarantee to enable the potential capability of future advanced server processors.