NVIDIA High Power Chip Hybrid Liquid Cooling Solution

  The NVIDIA team is building a novel solution - mixed liquid cooling to meet the cooling needs of future data centers. This advanced liquid cooling system has received $5 million in funding from the US Department of Energy's COOLRCHIPS program, which is also the highest funding received among the 15 COOLRCHIPS program projects awarded by the US Department of Energy in May.

     This hybrid liquid cooling concept combines direct liquid cooling (DLC) of chips with immersion cooling of other components. Compared to the current inability to handle liquid cooling with a power density higher than 40W/cm2, hybrid cooling has the following advantages:
1. The power of the server rack can reach up to 200kW, which is 25 times the current level;
2. Compared to air cooling, the cost is reduced by at least 5%;
3. Compared with air cooling, the cooling efficiency is increased by 20%;
4. Running quieter and with lower carbon emissions.

     NVIDIA stated that they will develop a new modular data center with innovative cooling systems that integrate directly into the chip, pumped two-phase, and single-phase immersed cooling systems in a rack manifold with built-in pumps and liquid vapor separators. This design uses a two-phase cooling plate to cool the chip, while other server components with lower power density will be immersed in a sealed immersion box. The server uses green refrigerant for two-phase cooling and immersion cooling, respectively.

    At the server level, this design combines evaporative cooling modules directly into the chip, including electrodeposition of metal on high-power chips to eliminate thermal interface materials and reduce chip to coolant thermal resistance, as well as air cooling, including rear door heat exchangers and other components used in the system, providing a powerful and scalable solution for the future, as well as a simple method of retrofitting old data centers.

    With the continuous increase in data center power driven by AI and other large-scale computing applications, developing innovative and efficient advanced cooling technologies to reduce the cooling power that currently accounts for about 40% of data center energy consumption is a key focus area for data center market participants.