What’s the hottest thing in electronics and high-performance computing? In a word, it’s “cool.”
To be more precise, it’s a liquid cooling system developed at Georgia Tech for electronics aimed at solving a long-standing problem: overheating.
Developed by Daniel Lorenzini, a 2019 Tech graduate who earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, the cooling system uses microfluidic channels — tiny, intricate pathways for liquids — that are embedded within the chip packaging.
He worked with VentureLab, a Tech program in the Office of Commercialization, to spin his research into a startup company, EMCOOL, headquartered in Norcross.
“Our solution directly addresses the heat at the source of the silicon chip and therefore makes it faster,” Lorenzini said. “Our design has our system sitting directly on the silicon chips that generate the most heat. Using the fluids in the micro-pin fins, it carries the heat that’s produced away from the chip.”
That cooling solution is directly integrated into the electronic components, making it significantly more efficient than conventional cooling methods, because it enhances the heat dissipation process.
The result is a much lower risk of overheating and reduced power consumption, he said.
Lorenzini, who researched and refined the technology in the lab of Yogendra Joshi at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, was awarded a patent for the technology in September 2024.
Now, EMCOOL, which has five empoloyees, is actively pursuing venture capital funding to scale its technology and address the escalating thermal management challenges posed by AI processors in modern data centers.
The system uses a cooling block with tiny, pin-like fins on one side and a special thermal interface material on the other. There’s also a junction attached to the block, with ports for the fluid to flow in and out. The cooling fluid moves through the micro-pin fins and helps to carry away the heat.
Since the ports are designed to match the shape of the fins, it ensures that the fluid flows efficiently and the heat is dissipated as effectively as possible at chip-scale.
As electronic devices — from high-performance personal computers to data centers used for artificial intelligence processing — become more powerful, they generate more heat. This excess heat can damage components or cause the device to underperform.
Traditional cooling methods, which include fans or heat sinks, often struggle to keep pace with the increasing demands of the newer model electronics. Lorenzini’s microfluidic system addresses the challenge of overheating with his patented, more effective, compact, and integrated cooling solution.
With the guidance of Jonathan Goldman, director of Quadrant-i in Tech’s Office of Commercialization, Lorenzini secured grant funding through the National Science Foundation and the Georgia Research Alliance to further the research and build design prototypes.
“We immediately had the sense there was commercial potential here,” Goldman said. “Thermal management, or getting rid of heat, is a ubiquitous problem in the computer industry, so when we saw what Daniel was doing, we immediately began to engage with him to understand what the commercial potential was.”
Indeed, the initial focus for the technology was the $159 billion global electronic gaming market. Gamers need a lot of computing power, which generates a lot of heat, causing lag.
But beyond gaming systems, the company, which manufactures custom cooling blocks and kits at its Norcross facility, is eyeing more sectors, which also suffer from overheating, Goldman said.
The technology addresses similar overheating electronics challenges in high-performance computing, telecommunications, and energy systems.
“This work propels us forward in pushing the boundaries of what traditional cooling technologies can achieve because by harnessing the power of microfluidics, EMCOOL’s systems offer a compact and energy-efficient way to manage heat,” Goldman said. “This has the potential to revolutionize industries reliant on high-performance computing, where heat management is a constant challenge.”
