Two-Phase Liquid Immersion Technology is gaining traction in today’s market as a means of combatting compounding data center concerns related to energy and resource consumption. Nowhere are such issues perhaps better revealed than in the current contentious debate about water usage requirements for data center facilities in draught-stricken western states. The two-phase liquid immersion approach to cooling computing equipment is being recognized for the many opportunities that are made available such as higher processing density, more densely packed DIMMs, the possibility for overclocking, faster server refresh rates, and increased energy efficiency. The presentation will include a high-level comparison of single- and two-phase immersion cooling as well as a further discussion of special technical topics related to two-phase immersion cooling data centers. As is always true with any burgeoning technology, challenges to the implementation of two-phase liquid immersion cooling are legitimate; concerns about fluid loss, limited power density, and material compatibility are real and must be addressed for this technology to succeed. In addition to addressing these issues, the presenter will review mitigation strategies for these challenges as well as opportunities for collaboration with respect to the widespread adoption of this technology. The path forward for Two-Phase Liquid Immersion Technology requires an honest evaluation of the challenges, a comprehensive review and debate regarding mitigation strategies for those challenges, and an accurate assessment of this technology that is unencumbered by entrenched interests.

Dr. Jimil Shah is the Senior Director of Thermal Sciences TMGcore. His research in advanced cooling solutions for data center thermal management focuses on single- and two-phase direct-to-chip as well as immersion cooling using dielectric fluids as well as mitigation of contamination as it relates to air-side economization solutions.

 Dr. Shah is a professional member of IEEE, ASHRAE TC9.9, ASME, and OpenCompute. In InterPACK 2018, he received the “ASME Electronics and Photonic Packaging Division (EPPD) Student Engineer of The Year Award.” He is the recipient of the 2018 UT Arlington College of Engineering Summer Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship as well as the 2018 UTA I-Engage Mentoring Program Scholarship. He has also received the “Best Student Abstract Award” at IMAPS 2015, Los Gatos, CA. Dr. Shah has 3 patents pending and published 28 journal and conference papers with two additional articles under review.

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