Papers & Publications

The Additive Manufacturing of record-breaking pure copper heatsinks for high-performance computing applications

Scott Green, Bram Hennebert, Niels Holmstock, Ine Vandebeek, Lieven Vervecken

Find out how the collaboration of 3D Systems, Diabatix, SkatterBencher, and ElmorLabs led to the development of a groundbreaking pure copper heatsink optimized for liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling in extreme overclocking scenarios. Based on a design created by Diabatix's generative design ColdStream platform and manufactured by 3D Systems with additive manufacturing, the heatsink achieved a remarkable +60% improvement in heat transfer efficiency compared to traditional heatsinks, establishing a new standard in thermal management for high-performance computing.

Learnings

  • Generative design platform ColdStream successfully created an efficient LN2 copper heat sink design based on manufacturing (additive) and material (copper) constraints.
  • The designed heatsink achieved a +60% improvement in heat transfer efficiency compared to conventional LN2 coolers, enhancing CPU overclocking potential.
  • Using 3D printing with oxygen-free copper allowed for complex geometries that maximize heat dissipation, surpassing traditional manufacturing limitations.
  • The LN2 heatsink leverages phase change cooling, which provides significantly better heat dissipation than single-phase liquid cooling solutions.
  • Testing demonstrated that the heatsink could sustain 600W CPU loads at 7.5 GHz with an ultra-low thermal resistance of 0.011 kW, confirming its superiority over existing solutions.
  • This innovation opens the door to similar designs for high-power-density applications such as data centers, AI computing, and HPC, with potential future iterations targeting 2,000W power dissipation.

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