DesignCon 2022 Schedule Builder

The top four variables contributing to post-assembly electronic failure of system in traditional air cooling environment are wide swings in operating temperature (-40~100oC), relative humidity up to 85%, vibration and, dust. Immersion cooling is an alternative thermal management method that reduces the impact of these four variables on server reliability by offering a lower and more stable operating temperature range of 30~50oC, humidity-free, vibration-free and dust-free environment. An over 3-year study published in 2021 Open Compute Project Summit concluded that there are 50% less server failures using immersion cooling compared to air cooling systems. PCBs sourced for immersion cooling today are designed to meet the reliability requirements to withstand the wide temperature and high humidity ranges for air cooling. As more and more data centers are realizing the technical benefits of immersion cooling there is a need to develop a high performance and cost-effective PCB manufacturing guidelines specific to the less-stringent immersion cooling environment. The purpose of this study is to establish a product guideline to manufacture cost-competitive PCBs specifically for immersion cooling. This new guideline is part of the immersion cooling deployment plan for future data centers to achieve the best performance per total-cost-of-ownership.

Takeaway

This study will report the IST, CAF and other reliability results to validate the idea of relaxing certain PCB manufacturing design rules as a result of the less-harsh immersion cooling environment, and quantify the subsequent performance and cost-savings potentials.