Project Motivation

• Immersion cooling is gaining strong traction as a means of disruptive thermal management in HPCs and data centers.
• On-board optics are gaining importance through co-packaged optics and mid-board optics applications.
• There is insufficient understanding of how optical interconnect components will perform in immersion-cooled environments.
   

Objectives

• To investigate and evaluate different on-board optical components and interconnect solutions in different immersion-cooled environments including single phase and dual phase.
• To understand how design factors of interconnect components affect performance in an immersion environment.
   

Strategy/Approach

• Evaluate performance and properties of optical components, assemblies and interconnect immersed in variety of immersion cooled environments under realistic conditions (temperature, time, etc.). 
• Develop an on-board optical ecosystem demonstrator that includes a comprehensive variety of different on-board/mid-board connector and cable solutions and facilitates measurement of performance during immersion.
• Evaluate optical interconnect performance with the demonstrator immersed in typical coolants under realistic conditions.
• Longer term — report to standards bodies (IEC, ISO, ITU)
   

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