三菱電機がマイクロバブル冷却を発表

三菱電機 has put forward a new cooling idea that feels almost counterintuitive. Instead of relying on power hungry pumps to push water through tiny microchannels, they are using ten micrometer microbubbles to create millimeter scale flow inside the channel itself. This is the first time anyone has managed to generate usable flow at that scale using bubbles as the driving force. The work comes out of a joint effort with Kyoto University’s Suzuki and Namura Lab.

The timing matters. Devices are heating up fast because AI servers and high output chips keep climbing in power draw. Water cooling through microchannels is becoming the go to method for squeezing out more thermal efficiency, but the smaller these channels get the more force you need to push liquid through them. That means bigger pumps and more electricity burned.

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If this microbubble driven flow proves reliable, it could cut down or even remove the need for those external pumps. That drops power consumption and pushes cooling systems a little closer to carbon neutrality. It is early stage research but it points to one of the few areas left where gains still matter.