Performance Analysis of Corrosion Resistant Electroless Nickel-Plated Impinging Computer Numerical Control Manufactured Liquid Cooling Cold Plate

Abstract More than ever before, data centers must deploy robust thermal solutions to adequately host the high-density and high-performance computing that is in high demand. The newer generation of central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) has substantially higher thermal power densities than previous generations. In recent years, more data centers rely on liquid cooling for the high-heat processors inside the servers and air cooling for the remaining low-heat information technology equipment. This hybrid cooling approach creates a smaller and more efficient data center. The deployment of direct-to-chip cold plate liquid cooling is one of the mainstream approaches to providing concentrated cooling to targeted processors. In this study, a processor-level experimental setup was developed to evaluate the cooling performance of a novel computer numerical control (CNC) machined nickel-plated impinging cold plate on a 1 in. × 1 in. mock heater that represents a functional processing unit. The pressure drop and thermal resistance performance curves of the electroless nickel-plated cold plate are compared to those of a pure copper cold plate. A temperature uniformity analysis is done using compuational fluid dynamics and compared to the actual test data. Finally, the CNC machined pure copper one is compared to other reported cold plates to demonstrate its superiority of the design with respect to the cooling performance.