Why do most data centers adopt cold plate cooling instead of immersion liquid cooling

     Driven by technologies such as cloud computing, generative artificial intelligence, and encrypted mining, the power density of data center racks continues to increase, and liquid cooling has become one of the best thermal management solutions. Even with airtightness, traditional air cooling methods are unable to meet the cooling needs of dense servers. Due to the increase in high-density rack utilization, IDTechEx's latest research report predicts that by 2023, the compound annual growth rate of cold plate liquid cooling will reach 16%, and other liquid cooling alternatives will also grow strongly.

     There are three main methods to integrate liquid cooling into data centers: (1) Design data centers specifically designed for liquid cooling: this involves using immersive cooling to create smaller, more efficient data centers with high computing power. However, due to the high costs involved, IDTechEx believes that immersion cooling will grow, but in the short term, it may be implemented on a smaller scale, such as pilot projects for large companies. (2) Design a data center with both air-cooled and liquid cooled infrastructure: This allows for a transition to liquid cooling in the future, while initially using air cooling. However, for end users with limited budgets, designing data centers with redundant functionality from scratch may not always be the first choice. (3) Integrating liquid cooling into existing air-cooled facilities: This is the most common method and is expected to become the preferred solution in the short to medium term.

    Driven by the demand for retrofitting existing air-cooled data centers, cold plate cooling (also known as direct chip cooling) is the dominant liquid cooling solution in the data center industry. Traditionally, cold plates are installed directly on top of heat sources (such as chipsets, CPUs, etc.), with a layer of thermal interface material (TIM) in the middle to enhance heat transfer. Inside the cold plate, liquid flows through the microstructure and flows out to some form of heat exchanger, which has advantages in thermal management.

    The cold plate cooling in data centers provides a flexible and deployable solution for liquid cooling. The unique distinguishing factor lies in the internal microstructure 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 low upfront costs and gradually transition to fully liquid cooled data centers over time.