ASHRAE Journal - February 2024 - 52
TECHNICAL FEATURE
Accelerated Degradation
Of Copper Cold Plates
In Direct-to-Chip Liquid
Cooling in Data Centers
BY LOCHAN SAI REDDY CHINTHAPARTHY; SATYAM SAINI, PH.D.; PARDEEP SHAHI, PH.D.; PRATIK VITHOBA BANSODE, PH.D.; HIMANSHU GIRISHCHANDRA MODI; DEREJE AGONAFER, PH.D.,
ASSOCIATE MEMBER ASHRAE
Increasing demands for cloud-based computing and storage, the Internet of Things
and machine learning-based applications have necessitated the use of more efficient
cooling technologies. Direct-to-chip liquid cooling using cold plates has proven to be
one of the most effective methods to dissipate the high heat fluxes of modern highpower
CPUs and graphics processing units (GPU). While the published literature has
well-documented research on the thermal aspects of direct liquid cooling, a detailed
account of reliability degradation is missing. The present investigation provides an
in-depth experimental analysis of the accelerated degradation of copper cold plates
used in high-power direct-to-chip liquid cooling in data centers.
Modern high-performance central processing
units (CPU) and graphics processing units (GPU)
feature high power densities and are continuously
being miniaturized. Nonuniform heat distribution in
multichip modules and modern multicore processing
units has increased package reliability as well as
exacerbated thermal management concerns. Typical
thermal design power (TDP) today on modern CPUs
and GPUs is approaching the mark of 400 W and will
soon exceed this limit.1,2 It is evident from this that a
large amount of the heat dissipated in a typical data
center server is attributed to the CPUs or GPUs and
the remainder of it by auxiliary components such as
solid-state drives (SSDs), power supply units (PSUs),
and network interface controller (NIC) cards.3 As power
densities continue to increase, many data center owners
and chip manufacturers recognize that air cooling
may not be sufficient and are instead turning to more
efficient liquid cooling technologies such as direct-tochip
and indirect-to-chip liquid cooling technology.
Lochan Sai Reddy Chinthaparthy is a Ph.D. student, Himanshu Girishchandra Modi is a Ph.D. student and Dereje Agonafer, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Satyam Saini, Ph.D., is a thermal engineer at Intel Corporation. Pardeep Shahi, Ph.D., is a senior mechanical engineer at Nvidia Corporation. Pratik Vithoba Bansode, Ph.D., is a
thermal engineer at Liquid Stack Corporation.
52
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ASHRAE Journal - February 2024
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - February 2024
ASHRAE Journal - February 2024 - Intro
ASHRAE Journal - February 2024 - CT1
ASHRAE Journal - February 2024 - CT2
ASHRAE Journal - February 2024 - Cover1
ASHRAE Journal - February 2024 - Cover2
ASHRAE Journal - February 2024 - 1
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ASHRAE Journal - February 2024 - Cover3
ASHRAE Journal - February 2024 - Cover4
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