Thermal management in high performance computers by use of heat Pipes and vapor chambers, and the challenges of global warming and environment

Abstract

The trend of the computer processors performance and power consumption has been increased significantly each year. Heat dissipation has been increased but in contrast the size of die on the processor has been reduced or remained the same size due to nano-size circuit technology and thus the heat flux is critically high. The extreme high performance processors heat flux can be over 100 W/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , which is likely 10 times higher than the surface of the household standard clothes iron. The intention of this paper is to provide insight into various thermal management solution using heat pipes and vapor chambers as heat transfer devices. This paper includes designs, data, and discussions of various fan sink air cooling designs showing how the design changes to push the limit of the air cooling capability. The utilization of the two-phase fluid phenomena to spread the heat was a key factor to be the leader of extending the air cooling limit capability for high performance computers. In addition to the thermal management for computers, in this paper also include consideration use of heat pipes to prevent global crisis of global warming and environmental impact by reducing green house gas emission. For example, use energy based cooling system such as heat pipes and cold storage system for partial cooling in the existing cooling system of data center can reduce the power electric assumption of the cooling system. Another example such as use of heat pipe to prevent icebergs and glaciers melting in Arctic ocean. Finally, the authors make recommendation what and which way we are going to develop for next generation of high power cooling chips, and our endeavor to use heat pipes in potential application to reduce global warming.