Fibre membrane could lower data centre cooling costs
15th June 2025
USA: Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new evaporative cooling technology that could improve the energy efficiency of data centres and high-powered electronics.
The idea uses a low-cost fibre membrane with a network of tiny, interconnected pores that draw cooling liquid across its surface by capillary action. As the liquid evaporates, it efficiently removes heat from the electronics underneath with no additional energy required. The membrane sits on top of microchannels above the electronics, pulling in liquid that flows through the channels and efficiently dissipating heat.
The advance is detailed in a paper published on June 13 in the journal Joule.
“Compared to traditional air or liquid cooling, evaporation can dissipate higher heat flux while using less energy,” said Renkun Chen, professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, who co-led the project with professors and colleagues Shengqiang Cai and Abhishek Saha.
Chen accepts that many applications currently rely on evaporation for cooling, but admits that applying it effectively to high-power electronics needed for artificial intelligence (AI) has been a challenge.
Previous attempts using porous membranes, which have high surface areas that are ideal for evaporation, are said to have been unsuccessful because their pores were either too small they would clog or too large they would trigger unwanted boiling. “Here, we use porous fibre membranes with interconnected pores with the right size,” said Chen. This design achieves efficient evaporation without those downsides.
When tested across variable heat fluxes, the membrane is said to have achieved record-breaking performance. It managed heat fluxes exceeding 800W/cm2 of heat—one of the highest levels ever recorded for this kind of cooling system. It also proved stable over multiple hours of operation.
“This success showcases the potential of re-imagining materials for entirely new applications,” said Chen. “These fibre membranes were originally designed for filtration, and no one had previously explored their use in evaporation. We recognised that their unique structural characteristics – interconnected pores and just the right pore size – could make them ideal for efficient evaporative cooling. What surprised us was that, with the right mechanical reinforcement, they not only withstood the high heat flux–they performed extremely well under it.”
While the current results are promising, Chen says the technology is still operating well below its theoretical limit. The team is now working to refine the membrane and optimise performance. Next steps include integrating it into prototypes of cold plates, which are flat components that attach to chips like CPUs and GPUs to dissipate heat.
The team is also launching a startup company to commercialise the technology.
