Californian startup xMEMS, which has created unique solid-state ultrasonic coolers and speakers, has come up with an original solution for cooling optical transceivers. Modern high-performance transceivers for data transmission at speeds from 800 Gbps to 1.6 Tbps generate up to 18 W of heat or more, which is extremely difficult to remove from overloaded server racks. A compact solid-state cooler can solve this problem in the best way.
XMC-2400 µCooling. Image source: PCWorld/YouTube
Since its inception, xMEMS has been developing solid-state speakers for headphones, smartphones, and other compact electronics. Last year, it introduced a new product — solid-state coolers that have no mechanical parts. Coolers work on a principle similar to speakers: tiny MEMS elements create pressure during membrane vibrations and remove heated air away from the device. You can’t expect intense heat removal from such devices, but for 5–18 W, this is a convenient solution.
Image source: xMEMS
Optical transceivers have proven to be a promising direction for integration with xMEMS solid-state coolers. In transceivers, the digital signal processors (DSPs) get the hottest. xMEMS engineers have created a design for an air-based heat dissipation system for the DSP using proprietary MEMS elements.
The heated air is discharged through channels under the transceiver board, without contaminating the optics with dust and allowing the heated air to be discharged from the racks in the simplest way. Given the growing number of connections per rack, which has spurred demand for data centers and artificial intelligence, individual cooling of each optical transceiver with solid-state coolers that do not require maintenance seems almost an ideal solution.
Airflow temperature distribution from a solid state cooler under the transceiver
The xMEMS µCooling’s compact size of just 9.3 x 7.6 x 1.13 mm and scalable architecture make it a promising choice for modular deployment of a wide range of network connections, including QSFP-DD, OSFP and future pluggable optics.