Artificial Intelligence is reshaping data center infrastructure at an unprecedented pace. As GPU performance continues to accelerate, the challenge is no longer simply delivering more compute power. It is removing the immense amounts of heat those processors generate.
Traditional air cooling is reaching its practical limits. Today's AI servers are pushing rack power densities beyond 100 kW, with next-generation systems expected to go even higher. As a result, direct-to-chip (D2C) liquid cooling is rapidly becoming the preferred thermal management solution for hyperscalers, data center operators, and AI infrastructure providers
While much attention is focused on liquid cooling systems themselves, a critical question remains: How do you manufacture the precision thermal structures needed to unlock their full performance potential?
For Veco Precision, this is where electroforming creates a unique advantage.
The AI Cooling Challenge
Modern AI processors consume significantly more power than traditional CPUs. The latest generations of GPUs integrate massive computing capabilities within increasingly compact footprints, creating extreme thermal loads and localized hotspots.
To maintain performance, cooling systems must remove heat directly at the source. Direct-to-chip cooling achieves this by circulating liquid through cold plates mounted directly onto GPUs, CPUs, and memory components. Liquid cooling can transfer heat far more efficiently than air, enabling the high-density computing environments required for AI workloads.
However, cooling performance depends heavily on what happens inside the cold plate itself.
The geometry of the fluid pathways, the uniformity of flow distribution, and the surface area available for heat exchange all have a direct impact on thermal performance.
This is where precision manufacturing becomes critical.
Why Microstructures Matter
To improve cooling efficiency, engineers are increasingly turning to advanced thermal architectures, including:
- Microchannel heat exchangers
- Jet impingement cooling structures
- Flow distribution layers
- High-surface-area heat transfer elements
- Precision fluid management components
These structures maximize heat transfer while minimizing pressure drop and coolant consumption. However, many of these features are extremely difficult, expensive, or even impossible to manufacture using conventional machining techniques.
The future of AI cooling requires manufacturing technologies capable of producing highly precise, complex, three-dimensional metal structures at scale.
Electroforming: Enabling the Next Generation of Thermal Management
Electroforming from Veco offers a fundamentally different approach to manufacturing.
Rather than removing material through machining, we build highly accurate metal structures layer by layer from a precision mold.
This process enables:
- Ultra-fine feature sizes
- High aspect ratio geometries
- Exceptional dimensional accuracy
- Uniform replication across large production volumes
- Design freedom beyond conventional subtractive manufacturing
For thermal management applications, these capabilities create entirely new opportunities for cooling system designers.
Using electroforming, complex microchannel networks can be produced with precisely controlled dimensions. Flow paths can be optimized to improve coolant distribution. Advanced heat transfer surfaces can be incorporated directly into component designs.
The result is a new generation of thermal management solutions designed specifically for the demands of AI infrastructure.
Applications
Advanced Microchannel Cold Plates
Cold plates are the primary interface between processors and coolant.
Electroformed microstructures can increase heat transfer surface area while maintaining tightly controlled flow characteristics. This enables higher cooling efficiency and supports growing processor power densities.
Jet Impingement Cooling Structures
Jet impingement technology uses precisely directed coolant streams to target thermal hotspots directly on the chip surface.
Electroforming enables the production of highly uniform micro-nozzle arrays that would be challenging to achieve through conventional manufacturing methods. Using it, we can achieve conical /bell mouth /trumpet shaped apertures as we have also proved across other applications.
Precision Flow Control Components
As liquid cooling systems scale, maintaining consistent coolant distribution becomes increasingly important.
Electroformed flow-control elements, distribution plates, and filtration structures can help improve flow uniformity and overall system reliability.
Next-Generation Cooling Architectures
Future AI processors are expected to continue increasing in power consumption and thermal density. Meeting these requirements will demand innovative cooling concepts that combine microfluidics, advanced materials, and highly engineered thermal interfaces.
The design freedom offered by electroforming positions it as a valuable manufacturing technology for these next-generation solutions.
Supporting the Future of AI Infrastructure
The data center industry is investing billions in AI infrastructure. Success will depend not only on faster processors, but also on the ability to cool them efficiently, reliably, and sustainably.
Direct-to-chip liquid cooling is emerging as a key enabler of this transformation. Yet behind every high-performance cooling system lies a network of precision-engineered thermal structures that determine how effectively heat can be removed.
At Veco Precision, we see an opportunity to help shape the future of thermal management through advanced electroforming technology.
By enabling complex microstructures, precision flow control, and innovative heat-transfer geometries, electroforming can help cooling system designers push beyond the limitations of traditional manufacturing and unlock the next generation of AI performance.
As AI drives a cooling revolution, precision manufacturing from Veco will play a critical role. And the companies that master thermal microstructures today will help power the data centers of tomorrow.