New 3D-printed copper technology offers a high-efficiency solution to the data center power crisis.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers developed a computer-chip-cooling technology by combining topology optimization with electrochemical additive manufacturing (ECAM).

This new approach produces pure-copper cold plates that outperform industry standards, and could reduce data center cooling energy consumption from 30 percent of total usage to just 1.1 percent.

“Cooling is the bottleneck in computer-chip design,” said Behnood Bazmi, a mechanical engineering graduate student.

“By bridging the gap between computational design and manufacturing capability, our approach provides a pathway for more energy-efficient liquid cooling of chips and other electronics,” the first author added. 

Pure copper printing

The digital world is overheating. As the race for artificial intelligence accelerates, the massive data centers powering our searches and chatbots are pushing the U.S. power grid to its breaking point. 

Current estimates suggest that by 2028, these digital warehouses could devour 12 percent of the national energy load.

For a long time, computers have been cooled by blowing air over them. It is simple, cheap, and — as of today — completely insufficient. Modern chips are becoming so powerful that air cooling is like trying to put out a forest fire with a desk fan.

In a typical 1 GW data center, over a third of the total energy, around 550 megawatts, is wasted on air-cooling rather than powering actual computing tasks like AI or storage.

In this new study, researchers unveiled a “direct-to-chip” liquid cooling plate for data centers.

Direct-to-chip cooling uses a metal cold plate with “fins” that extend into a circulating liquid to maximize the heat-dissipating surface area.

Similar systems are commercially available, but often sacrifice thermal efficiency for lower manufacturing costs, whereas this new approach prioritizes performance through optimized fin geometry.

Using a process called topology optimization, the team let a mathematical algorithm design the perfect cooling surface. Instead of the standard, boring rectangular fins found in the home PC, the algorithm generated complex, jagged, and pointed copper structures optimized for both heat absorption and fluid flow.

“Topology optimization ends up converging on a design which is optimal in maximizing thermal performance and minimizing pumping power,” said Founder Professor Nenad Miljkovic.

Use of 3D-printing

Designing a perfect shape is one thing; building it is another. These jagged fins are so intricate — some thinner than a human hair — that standard manufacturing couldn’t touch them.

To solve this, the researchers turned to Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM). Compared to standard 3D printing, which melts metal, ECAM grows pure copper layer by layer through an electrochemical process. 

Electrochemical additive manufacturing enables the creation of pure copper structures with micro-precision details as fine as 30 micrometers, far surpassing the thermal conductivity of standard aluminum alloys. 

32% better cooling performance

These optimized plates outperform standard designs by delivering 32 percent better cooling and reducing the energy required for fluid circulation by 68 percent.

This leap in efficiency promises substantial energy savings for data centers compared to current air and liquid-cooling standards.

“With our cold plates, data centers would only need to use 11 megawatts for cooling instead of 550 megawatts,” said Miljkovic.

With this new tech, the cooling limit that has held back computer chip design can be broken. This scalable workflow is not limited to servers; it offers a versatile blueprint for solving diverse cooling challenges across a wide range of electronic and industrial applications.

The study was published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science on May 7.