These disruptive breakthroughs in the cooling technology came out of Maxwell Labs, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based startup. To address this challenge, the company is building a revolutionary new cooling solution—Laser Cooling. This cutting-edge technology enables us to maintain chip temperatures ≦50 °C on all surfaces while focusing with precision on the hottest hot spots. This new technique is a game-changer with the potential to significantly improve chip performance. It will drastically improve energy efficiency for high-performance computing and AI Training clusters.
The Laser Cooling technology is based on mechanisms of anti-Stokes cooling in which the re-emission process of the light has higher energy. Providing larger temperature drops by matching energy from incoming photons to phonons, this approach allows for particularly large temperature reductions. In our own lab tests, it’s displayed a cooling potential on hot spots radiating thousands of watts per square millimeter. This technical accomplishment is a dramatic improvement over existing state-of-the-art air and liquid cooling technologies.
The Mechanics Behind Laser Cooling
At the core of Laser Cooling is a remarkably advanced photonic cold plate, engineered with multiple components to address key requirements. These parts—a coupler, extractor, back reflector, and sensor—are meant to fit together to form a seamless ecosystem. As the chip starts to get hotter, thermal hot spots begin to create injustices. The Laser Cooling system measures these fluctuations almost instantaneously.
This newfound capacity to track temperature variances enables more immediate and effective intervention by cooling the most impacted areas specifically where the heat is most needed. The Laser Cooling technique is remarkably efficient. It has the potential to dissipate twice the power of conventional air and liquid cooling systems combined, fundamentally changing the way we cool modern electronics.
The technology was first demonstrated in solid materials in 1995, when researchers successfully cooled an ytterbium-doped fluoride glass sample using laser light. This initial foray helped set the stage for exciting developments that have ended in today’s cutting-edge applications.
Overcoming Current Challenges in Chip Cooling
Chip manufacturers today are in the midst of a major dilemma referred to as the dark-silicon problem. To control heat production, they frequently have to have as many as 80% of transistors on a modern chip turned off or “dark” at any time. Laser Cooling solves this problem by enabling clocking frequencies more than an order of magnitude above what’s possible today.
With this new technology, chip designers can achieve a much higher utilization of the available transistors without cooking the device. Laser cooling improves performance and reduces total energy use. Studies suggest that when used in conjunction with conventional air cooling, it can cut energy consumption by more than 50% for today’s chips.
In addition to its low emission levels, Laser Cooling has excellent energy recovery potential. By re-collecting light into fiber-optic cables, the system can convert excess light into electricity through thermophotovoltaics, achieving energy recovery rates upwards of 60%. This offers a much more sustainable, dynamic approach to chip cooling and overall power management.
Implications for High-Performance Computing
It’s safe to say that the effects of Laser Cooling far surpass simply keeping things cold. The new technology provides order-of-magnitude improvements in performance per watt of cooling in high-performance computing and AI training clusters. As all industries turn to advanced and high-performance computing solutions, effective cooling is essential to keeping systems performing at their best.
Maxwell Labs intends to apply this novel approach to better address the complex and growing requirements of today’s high-performance computing spaces. The relatively young company is betting its future and fortunes on bringing new chip efficiencies through improved cooling. This breakthrough will pay off for our technology firms and help drive sustainability initiatives across the board.
Lab-based approaches have been stunningly successful! Tests have been able to achieve 90 watts of cooling power in nennt silicone glass doped with ytterbium. Since then, Maxwell Labs has been hard at work refining its Laser Cooling technology. With this introduction, the company is already positioned to change the game on chip performance and increase energy efficiency.