Cool Immersive Cooling

 【Cool Immersive Cooling】

I was so amazed about this cooling technology. It is new to me.

Thinking about liquid cooling for servers and networking devices, coming into my mind are tightly sealed water pipes around the circuit boards. This is different. The circuit board and everything simply immerse in liquid.

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The cooling liquid looks like water to me. However, I know this simple physics that water is electrically conductive. Even a drop of water on a running circuit will surely short-circuit everything and burn break them all. Is there any new coating technology over the metal so circuit boards nowadays can be waterproof?

After watching this video, I now know the key is about the liquid itself.

https://youtu.be/PvmMs6mU0NU?si=-NgiEM5AbHxdu_kE

That liquid is a product named “ElectroCool Dielectric Coolant” by “Engineered Fluids.” It is not conductive up to tens of kilovolts with kiloamperes. When pouring this liquid onto a running circuit board, it is as if a “denser air” is filling and replacing original natural air. All the magic is the liquid itself.

Although I do not have confirmation from Cisco, I do believe the liquid used in Cisco Live demo video should be exactly “ElectroCool Dielectric Coolant,” or at least similar product from other vendors.

I can see benefits of this “cool” liquid coolant:

1. It is as transparent as air, not conductive, and better capacity for heat dissipation.
2. This technology makes less fan noises. It makes noisy data centers quiet.
3. This liquid is not toxic, according to the demo.
4. Easier to deploy. It is much easier than installing sealed water pipes around circuit boards.
5. Fiber optics are still working under this liquid. Refraction is not a problem.

One more thing…

I also have a couple of doubts about deploying this technology.

1. Is this liquid corrosive so circuitry would stop working with enough time? What about rotating fans?
2. Will this liquid easily vaporize itself so we must refill the liquid frequently?
3. When this coolant contacts plain water, such as firewater, condensed water drops, or rain waters, what would happen?

It is an interesting new cooling technology for me to observe on.