By Josh Perry, Editor
[email protected]

In a recent article published by Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc. (ATS), a leading-edge engineering firm based in Norwood, Mass. focused on the thermal management of electronics, three patents for data center cooling and high-density computing are highlighted.

Three patents for data center cooling are highlighted. (Wikimedia Commons)

The included patents are for a hybrid immersion cooling system for servers, a thermal caching system for liquid cooled computers, and a modular, high-density computer system.

The immersion cooling system includes a liquid-sealed enclosure to house the components and uses cold plates to provide indirect cooling to one of the components and immersion cooling on the second. According to the patent, “The shortcomings of the prior art are overcome and additional advantages are provided through the provision of a method and associated hybrid immersion cooling apparatus for cooling of electronic components housed in a computing environment.”

In the thermal caching solution, liquid cooling is supplemented by an electrically of hydraulically operated valve that creates an independent closed loop cooling system within an electronic rack. The patent explained, “Before allowing the coolant to access any of the electronic components housed within the rack, a one way valve is placed on the supply lid entering the rock. The valve allows fluid to pass from the data center cooling supply line into the rack but prevents flow from regressing toward the supply line should the flow stop and/or an adverse pressure gradient is experienced.”

For cooling modular high-density computing systems, with power densities around 20 kW, a patent described a system in which the computational components and the rack infrastructure were built and shipped separately. The patent said, “The computational components can be assembled and tested for proper operation while the infrastructure components are shipped separately in advance of the computational components. Thus, the infrastructure cooling components, data and power distribution components, and framework components can be delivered and their time-intensive installation completed more easily and prior to receiving the tested computational components.”

Read the full article at https://www.qats.com/cms/2018/12/20/technology-review-data-center-cooling.