Two-phase active immersion cooling for vertically mounted electronics with interchip component-assisted bubble departure

Abstract

To address growing heat dissipation demands in high-performance computing chips, there is a transition from conventional cooling methods to advanced two-phase immersion cooling techniques for electronics thermal management. Here, we present a numerical investigation into the fluid dynamics and heat transfer in two-phase immersion cooling systems with vertically mounted chips on a printed circuit board (PCB) with interchip components such as capacitors, switches, and inductors. Leveraging a combined phase tracking and volume of fluid model, we study how the physical layout and geometries of interchip components affect the flow paths of bubbles, bubble coalescence phenomena, vapor coverage on chip surfaces, and cooling rates of heated chips. In an optimal PCB topology, a maximum heat flux of 18 W/cm2 and a heat transfer coefficient of 9650 W/m2K are observed for dielectric hydrofluoroether (HFE) - 7100 at an excessive wall temperature of 20 K under a constant wall temperature boundary condition. The research offers insights into the electronic system design to achieve efficient cooling for high-performance computing applications, demonstrating the critical role of interchip components in heat transfer.