A brief introduction to liquid cooling and its technology

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A brief introduction to liquid cooling and its technology

Liquid cooling mainly refers to the use of liquid instead of air to take away the heat generated by heating devices such as CPU, chipsets, memory sticks, and expansion cards.

Liquid cooling can be used as heat dissipation and cooling for IT equipment in the data center to achieve normal operation of the data center. Data Center (DC) is a building that provides an operating environment for centrally placed electronic information equipment, including host rooms, auxiliary areas, support areas, and administrative management areas.As the underlying computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud computing, and the industrial Internet, the value of data centers has been greatly highlighted. The infrastructure that makes up the data center includes IT equipment such as servers and optical modules, and non-IT equipment such as power supplies, refrigeration, and cabinets. Cooling systems are an important component of data center infrastructure.The core components of IT equipment in the data center are semiconductor devices. IT equipment will continue to generate heat when running. Therefore, a refrigeration system is required to dissipate heat to ensure the stability of the internal environment of the data center and achieve normal operation of the data center. The cooling technology used in the refrigeration system It includes liquid cooling.

Currently, the commonly used cooling technologies generally adopt cold plate, immersion and spray technology.

Overview of Liquid Cooling Technology Classification:

1.Cold plate liquid cooling

Cold plate liquid cooling uses micro-channel enhanced heat exchange technology to have extremely high heat dissipation performance. It conducts heat into the coolant by flowing it through a metal cold plate that is in direct contact with the equipment. The advantages are easy installation, compact size, high heat dissipation efficiency, small changes to existing server chip components and ancillary components, and stronger operability. It is currently the most mature and widely used. The disadvantage is that regular maintenance is required to ensure smooth flow of coolant, and the cold plate may need to be customized for different equipment, which increases the cost.

Disassembled view of cold plate liquid cooling system components:

Application fields: Currently used in military radars, high-density data centers, high-performance computers, power batteries and high-power LED heat dissipation fields. It is an effective application to solve the deployment of high-power consumption equipment, improve energy efficiency, reduce cooling operating costs, and reduce TCO. plan.

2.Immersion Liquid Cooling

Immersion liquid cooling technology immerses the heating device so that the device is in direct contact with the liquid, thereby performing heat exchange. Among them, coolant is the heat exchange medium in the data center. It has high insulation, low viscosity and super compatibility characteris

Schematic diagram of immersion liquid cooling:

3.Spray liquid cooling:

Dissipate heat by spraying coolant on the surface of the equipment. The advantages are simple installation and directional cooling based on the actual heat distribution of the device. Disadvantages of spray liquid cooling: First, the cooling effect may be affected by air flow and may lead to waste of cool

Schematic diagram of spray liquid cooling:

Future expectations for the liquid cooling market

The future expectations of the liquid cooling market are very broad. As the computing power of computers continues to increase, the heat generated by electronic devices is also increasing, and the demand for liquid cooling technology is also increasing. According to a report

The growth of the liquid cooling market is mainly driven by the following factors:

Increase in the demand for high-performance computing

High-performance computers need to process large amounts of data and complex computing tasks, and generate very large amounts of heat. Liquid cooling technology can more effectively reduce the temperature of the computer and improve the performance and stability of the computer.

Increased demand for data centers

With the development of cloud computing and big data technology, the demand for data centers continues to increase. Liquid cooling technology can more effectively reduce the temperature of servers and improve server performance and stability.

Increased demand for artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence needs to process large amounts of data and complex computing tasks, and generates very large amounts of heat. Liquid cooling technology can more effectively reduce the temperature of artificial intelligence equipment and improve the performance and stability of the equipment.

Increasing demand for gaming computers

With the development of e-sports, the demand for gaming computers is also increasing. Liquid cooling technology can more effectively reduce the temperature of gaming computers and improve computer performance and stability.

To sum up, the future expectations of the liquid cooling market are very broad. As the performance of electronic equipment continues to improve, liquid cooling technology will become one of the mainstream methods of heat dissipation for electronic equipment in the future.

Reprinted from - Radiator, Liquid Cold Plate Manufacturer