IBM researchers, in collaboration with Fraunhofer institute of Berlin, have demonstrated a prototype that integrates the cooling system into 3D chips by piping water directly between layers in the stack. This so called 3D chip stacking which takes chips and memory devices that traditionally sit side by side on a silicon wafer 7 stacks them together on top of one another presents one of the most promising approaches to enhancing chip performance beyond its predicted limits.
Bruns & his team piped water into cooling structures as thin as a human hair between individual chip layers in order to remove heat efficiently at source. Using the superior thermo physical qualities of water , scientists were able to demonstrate cooling performance of upto 180 W/cm2 per layer of a stack with typical footprint of 4cm2.
