Why Data Centers Use Cold Plate Instead of Immersion Liquid Cooling?

  With the advancement of technologies such as cloud computing, generative artificial intelligence, and cryptographic mining, the power density of data center racks continues to increase. Liquid cooling has emerged as one of the optimal solutions for heat management. Even in enclosed spaces, traditional air-cooling methods struggle to meet the cooling demands of dense servers. Due to the rising utilization of high-density racks, IDTechEx's latest research report predicts that by 2023, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of liquid cooling, specifically cold plate liquid cooling, will reach 16%, with other liquid cooling alternatives also experiencing robust growth.

There are three main methods for integrating liquid cooling into data centers:

Designing Data Centers Exclusively for Liquid Cooling: This involves creating smaller, more efficient data centers with high computational power using immersion cooling. However, due to the associated high costs, IDTechEx believes immersion cooling will grow but may initially be implemented on a smaller scale, such as in pilot projects for larger companies.

Designing Data Centers with Both Air and Liquid Cooling Infrastructure: This approach allows a transition to liquid cooling while initially using air cooling. However, for end-users with limited budgets, designing data centers with redundant features from the start may not always be the preferred option.

Integrating Liquid Cooling into Existing Air-Cooled Facilities: This is the most common method, expected to become the preferred solution in the medium term. It involves converting some capacity of the air system into a liquid cooling system. Its popularity stems from cost-effectiveness, the limited demand for full liquid cooling integration, and the ongoing evaluation of performance at a smaller scale before large-scale deployment.

Driven by the transformation requirements of existing air-cooled data centers, cold plate cooling, also known as direct chip cooling, dominates the liquid cooling landscape in the data center industry. Traditionally, cold plates are directly mounted on top of heat sources (e.g., chipsets, CPUs), with a thermal interface material (TIM) in between to enhance heat transfer. Liquid flows through microscopic structures within the cold plate and exits into some form of a heat exchanger. IDTechEx predicts that the increasing popularity of cold plates will drive market demand for TIMs, especially those used for processors and chipsets. Intel's innovative approach in its new design involves integrating the cold plate directly into the package, eliminating the need for TIM and reducing volumetric thermal resistance or impedance. While this integration offers advantages in thermal management, the microscopic embedding of the cold plate in the package introduces greater design complexity.

Why Data Centers Prefer Cold Plate Cooling Over Immersion Cooling?

  Cold plate cooling in data centers provides a flexible and deployable solution for liquid cooling, with a key differentiating factor being the internal microscopic structure of the cold plate. Unlike immersion cooling, cold plate cooling allows data center integrators and server suppliers to incorporate liquid cooling into their facilities at relatively lower upfront costs, gradually transitioning to fully liquid-cooled data centers over time. The annual revenue for cold plate liquid cooling is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% over the next 16 years, with rapid growth in cold plate hardware also driving the market for components such as pumps and cooling distribution units (CDUs).

 

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