What Is Immersion Cooling?_
Immersion cooling submerges entire servers or components in a thermally conductive, electrically non-conductive liquid (dielectric fluid). Single-phase immersion uses a fluid that remains liquid; two-phase immersion uses a fluid that boils at low temperature, carrying heat away as vapor. Immersion cooling supports the highest power densities but requires specialized server designs and facility infrastructure.
Technical Details
Single-phase immersion cooling uses engineered fluids (such as mineral oils or synthetic fluids) that remain liquid throughout the cooling cycle. Servers are placed horizontally in open tanks, and the heated fluid circulates to external heat exchangers. Two-phase immersion uses fluorocarbon-based fluids with low boiling points; the fluid boils at the chip surface, and the vapor rises to a condenser where it returns to liquid. Immersion cooling eliminates the need for fans, cold plates, and traditional airflow management. However, it requires specialized server designs (no fans, modified PCB coatings), fluid management systems, and tank infrastructure. Immersion cooling is not currently standard for NVIDIA NVL72 systems, which use DLC with cold plates.
How Leviathan Systems Works with Immersion Cooling
While Leviathan Systems primarily deploys direct liquid cooling for current NVIDIA GPU platforms, we monitor immersion cooling developments and can advise on facility design considerations for immersion-capable infrastructure.