Cold Plate Interface for Densely Packed SSD Liquid Cooling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge of efficiently cooling tightly packed semiconductor chips in devices with a ruler form factor, such as SSDs, due to minimal spacing and difficulty in inserting effective cooling solutions.
Innovation Solution
A cold plate system interface is used, where a cold plate is mounted to the SSD ruler, making physical contact with semiconductor chips and incorporating heat pipes or fingers for efficient heat transfer, and wedges or sleeves for interfacing with the server's liquid cooling block, enhancing thermal conductivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If SSDs are tightly packed to maximize space utilization, then storage density is improved, but heat dissipation becomes difficult due to limited cooling space
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from planar cooling to three-dimensional cooling by positioning cold plates on both sides of the SSD PCB, utilizing the Z-dimension (thickness direction) for heat dissipation. This allows cooling surfaces to extend in multiple spatial dimensions, effectively increasing the cooling area without expanding the horizontal footprint, thus resolving the contradiction between high storage density and heat dissipation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The cold plates are nested within the limited space of the SSD assembly, with each cold plate positioned on opposite sides of the PCB and extending only as far as necessary to contact the chip packages. This nested arrangement maximizes heat transfer surface area while minimizing the additional space required, allowing tight packing of SSDs while maintaining effective cooling.
2Reliability
If cold plates are designed to contact chip package lids to improve heat transfer, then thermal conductivity is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase due to the need for accurate alignment
Solution Approach 1:
The cold plates are designed with locally optimized contact surfaces that concentrate thermal contact area at critical heat-generating regions (chip package lids) rather than requiring uniform contact across the entire PCB. This localized quality approach improves heat transfer efficiency where it matters most while reducing the overall manufacturing precision requirements for the cold plate assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling system is segmented into multiple independent cold plates, each responsible for cooling specific chip packages on the PCB. This segmentation allows each cold plate to be independently positioned and adjusted to achieve optimal thermal contact with its target chips, reducing the cumulative alignment complexity that would exist in a monolithic cooling design.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively transfers heat from the chips to the cooling block, ensuring efficient heat removal even in tightly packed configurations, maintaining optimal operating temperatures.
Implementation Method 1
utilizing heat pipes and thermally conductive materials to efficiently transfer heat to a liquid cooling system
Implementation Method 2
utilizing heat pipes and thermally conductive materials to efficiently transfer heat to a liquid cooling system
Implementation Method 3
facilitating effective thermal transfer and maintaining system temperature within safe limits
Implementation Method 4
utilizing heat pipes and thermally conductive materials to efficiently transfer heat to a liquid cooling system
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus is described. The apparatus includes a cold plate. The ruler factor cold plate is to receive heat from semiconductor chips of a electronic component that is to be plugged into an electronic system. The cold plate has at least one of: a) a linearly advancing physical interface, the linearly advancing physical interface to make physical contact with a corresponding linearly advancing physical interface of a cooling component of the electronic system, the physical contact to create a thermal path from the cold plate to the cooling component; b) first fingers on a first face of the cold plate to make spring-force thermal contact with the semiconductor chips of the electronic component and second fingers on an opposite second face of the cold plate to make spring-force thermal contact with the respective semiconductor chips of another, neighboring electronic component.