A comprehensive review of single-phase immersion cooling in data centres

In recent years, the rapid surge in global computing power demand has posed significant challenges for data centers in terms of chip-level and rack-level cooling, as well as system-level energy efficiency. With chips exceeding 700 W and racks surpassing 30 kW, liquid cooling has become the preferred solution. Among various liquid cooling methods, single-phase immersion cooling, which utilizes high-boiling-point dielectric fluids to cool servers, offers distinct advantages such as high heat dissipation efficiency, excellent stability, low cooling energy consumption, and minimal noise. These attributes make it a highly promising solution for addressing the thermal management challenges in high-performance data centers, garnering widespread attention from both academia and industry. However, the relatively poor thermal properties of immersion coolants, combined with the emergence of kW-level digital chips, have challenged the cooling performance of conventional single-phase immersion cooling. In the above context, this paper analyzes and compares the thermo-physical properties, material compatibility and signal integrity of various single-phase immersion coolants, systematically reviews heat dissipation enhancement techniques and structural optimization studies at the chip, server and cabinet level, and discusses the energy saving advantages and potential of single-phase immersion cooling in data centers. This work aims to provide a systematic report on single-phase immersion cooling research, assess its technological development trends, and further explore its cooling potential. Finally, we summarize the limitations of current studies and analyze potential future research directions and applications, with a particular focus on the technical pathways for achieving chip cooling with power dissipation exceeding 1000 W and 100 W/cm² using single-phase immersion cooling.