As data center-grade processors are getting hotter, companies invent more and more creative ways to cool them down. As Nvidia and its partners are reportedly experimenting with new cold plates and immersion cooling for next-generation AI GPUs, Microsoft is proposing to etch microfluidic channels on the back of an actual chip to reduce its peak temperature by up to 65%, making it three times more efficient than cold plates.
Microsoft says it has developed a cooling system that routes fluid directly into microchannels etched on the back of the silicon die to guide the coolant to high-heat regions inside the chip. Flowing liquid inside the chip greatly reduces the efficiency of the whole setup, as liquid can almost 'touch' hot spots inside the processor, whereas in the case of more traditional liquid cooling or even immersion cooling, heat emerges several layers away from the coolant.
