Mikros Technologies: High-Efficiency Liquid Cooling for High Power Processors

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in silicon chip power densities resulting in high heat per unit area, which calls for an innovative solution to extract more heat with less energy input. An exemplary solution developed by Mikros Technologies uses microchannels in unique orientations for more efficient heat transfer than standard finned cold plates. Born out of a similar NASA Johnson Space Center project 30 years ago, Mikros Technologies has developed a heat sink technology that retains the high heat flux capability but eliminates high-pressure drop and non-uniform surface temperatures often seen in more common solutions.

"We're able to cool hotter chips in smaller areas, even with lower flow rates, in a hyper-scale data center," says Drew Matter, vice president, Mikros Technologies. "Our liquid cooling solutions can dissipate more than 1 kW/ cm2 with as low as 20°C temperature rise or three psi pressure drop." The company offers microchannel and minichannel liquid cooling solutions powered by its patented Normal Flow cold plates.

Mikros cold plates have found a use in data centers where more cooling needs to be achieved with less power input, saving operating costs. The data centers can utilize higher inlet fluid temperatures or smaller pumps with their more efficient heat transfer rates to meet higher ASHRAE targets for sustainability. Mikros Technology can also tailor its MicroMatrix™ technology for higher cooling over hotter die on a multi-chip module (MCM) and lesser cooling over lower power die to keep the thermal dynamics even across the chip. In addition, Mikros’ cold plate designs can be used in lidless chips to track the die curvature and its dynamic contraction to minimize the bond line thickness of the thermal interface material, which is a significant help to the thermal management of next-generation processors.