3D printing brings new opportunities for AI chip cooling
With the development of miniaturization trend in electronic devices, the problem of overheating has also increased. To address this challenge, it is more important than ever to improve heat dissipation performance by improving radiator design. Especially with the rapid development of AI technology, the issue of chip heat dissipation has been troubling the industry. A chip the size of a nail cap is actually a 300 watt heat source. But in reality, the chip is already scorching hot before it reaches this power consumption.
The miniaturization and high integration of chips can lead to a significant increase in local heat flux density. The improvement of computing power and speed brings huge power consumption and heat generation. One of the main factors restricting the development of high computing power chips is their heat dissipation capability. More than 55% of chip failures are caused by the inability to transfer heat or by rising temperatures. When the chip is above 70 ℃, for every 10 ℃ increase in temperature, its reliability will decrease by 50%.
The role of 3D printing technology in the field of heat exchange has become apparent, and it can also play a role in addressing chip level heat dissipation issues. 3D printing technology reference noticed that a company named ToffeeX used self-developed software to design a CPU liquid cooling heat exchanger and manufactured it using electrochemical 3D printing technology, reducing the pressure drop of the heat sink by 60%. The Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM) process has created a miracle in pure copper manufacturing - it achieves a voxel size of 33 microns, which is an incredible resolution, and can be printed using low-cost water-based materials at room temperature.
Nowadays, the semiconductor industry relies on cooling plates and other cooling devices typically manufactured through forging or turning processes. These processes are limited to producing regular fins, which can only be made in one direction, and are limited in the geometric shape that can fill these features. Electrochemical deposition additive manufacturing (ECAM) is a completely different metal 3D printing technology that can produce high-quality parts with excellent feature resolution and economy, and can achieve scalable large-scale production at high resolution.
But in addition to manufacturing challenges, the surface area and available cooling capacity of thermal management equipment manufactured in traditional ways are also limited. 3D printing not only provides a way to increase surface area and roughness for better heat dissipation, but also provides a pathway for the manufacturing of complex liquid cooled plates and heat exchangers, significantly improving performance.
