New thermal material provides 72% better cooling than conventional paste
New TIM offers superior cooling, 72% better than pastes, reducing data centers' energy and costs.
Researchers at the University of Texas have unveiled a groundbreaking thermal interface material (TIM) that combines Galinstan, a liquid metal alloy, and ceramic aluminum nitride. This innovative TIM outperforms leading cooling products such as those from Thermalright and Thermal Grizzly by a remarkable 56-72%, proving its superior capacity in lab tests by dissipating heat efficiently across a 16 cm² area.
The development could revolutionize energy usage in data centers, which currently expend around 8 terawatt-hours annually solely on cooling. By enhancing cooling capabilities, the TIM could decrease the energy demand of cooling pumps and fans by up to 65%, allowing for more densely packed heat-generating processors in the same space without overheating, and potentially reducing overall cooling energy needs by 13%.
Although still in the testing phase, with successful small-scale trials, the researchers are working on producing larger batches for real-world applications in data centers. The anticipated widespread implementation promises significant reductions in both operating costs and carbon emissions. More details are available in a study published in Nature Nanotechnology.