AI and Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing Help to Develop Direct-to-Chip Cooling System Composed of Copper Plates That Attach to Computer Chips: Can Cut Cooling Costs, Energy Use, and Provide Better Cooling

   

     Improving data center cooling is currently a major research focus. Cooling can add up to over 30% of data center energy usage. This is important since server energy usage in the U.S. more than tripled between 2014 and 2023 and may double or even triple once more by 2028, accounting for up to 12 percent of the nation's grid load, according to a 2024 report.

     Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), in collaboration with a US-based manufacturing company, Fabric8Labs, have developed a direct-to-chip cooling system composed of copper plates that attach to computer chips. The plates have fins, or projections that protrude to increase contact with the circulating coolant and enhance heat transfer efficiency. The fins have jagged edges and pointy tips to increase surface area. They used a technique called topology optimization to design more efficient heat-moving shapes. The method helps to alleviate the thermal-hydraulic trade-off issue by reducing pressure drop, which decreases the power required to pump the liquid coolant through the system.

     According to Nenad Miljkovic, mechanical engineer at UIUC:

"Topology optimization ends up converging on a design which is optimal in maximizing thermal performance and minimizing pumping power."

     The researchers had to find a way to manufacture the copper plates since copper is not easy to work with in additive manufacturing. They used a technique known as electrochemical additive manufacturing (ECAM). ECAM builds the plates layer by layer and does not require melting the copper. Pure copper has a high thermal conductivity, but it’s difficult to 3D print, so most cold plates are made of an aluminum alloy (AlSiMg) or stainless steel, which are not optimal for heat transfer.

"ECAM can manufacture pure copper parts with very fine detail – down to 30 to 50 micrometers, less than the width of a human hair," says Miljkovic.

     Science Alert explains that two important issues are solved with this cooling system:

“First, they could deliver up to 32 percent better cooling than conventional plates with simple rectangular fins. Second, they could reduce pressure drop by up to 68 percent while offering the same level of cooling.”

“The researchers also estimate that incorporating this cold plate technology across an entire "high-density, next-generation" data center could cut its cooling costs to just 1.1 percent of total energy use.”

     Obviously, if cooling energy use could be reduced from 30-40% of total energy use to close to 1%, that would be a massive improvement.

     Powered computer chips in use now produce more heat than previous chips and require more cooling, which is why one of the authors noted that “cooling is the bottleneck in computer-chip design.”

     Below, Fabric8Labs explains in more detail the increasing rack power densities in data centers, why conventional cooling is often inadequate, and how its ECAM-based system can solve those problems.

     Below is a summary of the paper published in Cell Reports Physical Science, a slide showing how topology optimization enables design, a slide showing ECAM fabrication, a slide showing a close-up of the fins, and a slide showing cooling power consumption.

 

References:

 

Engineers found a genius way to slash data center energy use. Ivan Farkas. Science Alert. June 14, 2026. Engineers found a genius way to slash data center energy use

Copper cold plates could slash data-center energy usage. Julia Grimmett, Cell Press. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The Grainger College of Engineering. May 7, 2026. Copper cold plates could slash data-center energy usage | Mechanical Science & Engineering | Illinois

Data Center Liquid Cooling: Lower energy costs, higher compute density, and future-proof performance: The AI Factory Cooling Challenge. Fabric8Labs. Data Center Liquid Cooling - Fabric8Labs

Ultra-high-performance cold plate development through topology optimization and electrochemical additive manufacturing. Behnood Bazmi, Aniket Ajay Lad, Evgeny Shatskiy  …  William P. King, Ian Winfield, Nenad Miljkovic. Cell Reports Physical Science. Volume 7, Issue 5. 103272. May 20, 2026. Ultra-high-performance cold plate development through topology optimization and electrochemical additive manufacturing: Cell Reports Physical Science