TSMC Works with Suppliers to Develop Immersion Cooling Solution for HPC Data Center, Aiming to Save Energy by 30% and Reduce Waste by 50%

Adhering to the ESG vision of uplifting society, TSMC encourages employees to propose good ideas connecting to the five ESG strategic directions through the TSMC ESG AWARD, and inject the creative momentum to maintain the Company’s sustainability. To solve high power consumption resulting from HPC (High Performance Computing), TSMC has developed “Immersion Cooling Solution for HPC Data Center”, one of the winning ideas in the 1st TSMC ESG AWARD. This solution uses water of normal temperature to cool down HPC servers to save energy. TSMC is implementing this solution in Fab 12B in January, 2022, which is estimated to reduce total energy consumption by 30%, reduce waste by 50%, and increase computing performance by 10%. The goal is to reduce 400 million KW-HR per year starting from 2030.

Putting Winning Idea into Practice; Innovative Cooling Technology Upgrades Energy Saving and Computing Performance Concurrently

The TSMC ESG AWARD recognizes employees and organizations that explore and carry out various possibilities of sustainability. As the advanced process technology evolves, the transistor density increases significantly, and the power consumption and operating temperature increase synchronously. Instead of using the traditional air cooling solution that consumes more power, members from the Company's Information Technology, Material Supply Chain Management, Facility, and Design and Technology Platform teams jointly proposed this innovative immersion cooling solution. This idea was recognized by the TSMC ESG AWARD in the Amazing Idea category in 2020, and TSMC had allocated budget to develop this project.

TSMC works with suppliers including Delta Electronics, Gigabyte, Accton, MIRLE and 3M to develop this immersion cooling solution, by which we design an immersion cooling tank with sealed enclosure to prevent gas leakage that allows servers to be directly immersed in the cooling fluid. According to the principle of heat transfer with phase change, heat from servers or switch boards causes the fluid to boil, producing vapor that rises from the liquid. When vapor contacts the condenser, it condenses to become liquid again and transfer heat to water in condenser pipes, and the water carries the heat and flows outside of the data center. This cooling process only needs water of normal temperature, and all electronic components can be cooled down and kept at around 50°C temperature. It can save a lot of energy and increase chip computing performance by more than 10%.

TSMC’s Immersion Cooling Solution for HPC Data Center

New Power Supply Architecture Reduces Power Consumption and Waste

In addition to developing the immersion cooling technology to save energy, TSMC improves the power supply architecture for HPC data centers. TSMC designs the centralized power supply system with LiFePO4 battery replacing individual small power supply and UPS system. As a result, the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) can be improved from 1.35 to below 1.08, and the fan-less design reduces server power consumption by 15~30%. TSMC uses the backplane design to connect the server board, switch board, and the power system. This backplane design can save hundreds of power and networking cables. If TSMC needs to upgrade severs in the future, the only thing needs to be replaced is the server board, while there is no need to replace the cases, power supplies, fans and cables. New designs can reduce more than 50% of waste.

TSMC proactively carries out the mission of green manufacturing. The immersion cooling system had been installed in Fab 12B for pilot run in January, 2022, aiming to reduce 400 million KW-HR per year starting from 2030. TSMC also proactively makes this solution an industrial standard, so that the Company can promote it in the supply chain and utilize the innovative technology for achieving sustainability in the future.