Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a technique to carve microscopic liquid-cooling channels directly inside silicon semiconductor chips. 

Interestingly, the computer architecture slashed the energy required for cooling by pumping ordinary, room-temperature water straight through the chip’s internal structure.

“As the performance of AI semiconductors and advanced electronic packaging becomes increasingly limited by heat, we expect this technology to serve as a foundational cooling solution for future high-performance computing systems,” said Professor Sung Jin Kim. 

Micro-channel tech

The rapid advancement of high-performance AI chips has created a severe energy crisis for data centers, which require massive amounts of electricity both to power intensive computations and to cool down the resulting heat. 

Typical cooling methods, such as roaring air fans and external copper heat spreaders, are reaching their physical limits. Hence, the industry is urgently looking for thermal alternatives. 

To appreciate this development, you have to understand why standard liquid cooling is flagging.

Most modern liquid systems rely on an external “cold plate” pressed against the outside of a chip. The coolant has to travel from one end of the hardware to the other. This long trek creates immense fluid resistance.

It requires heavy-duty pumps pushing with massive pressure, which consumes a ton of energy. And at times, the fluid warms up along the way, leaving some parts of the processor chilled and others dangerously hot.

The KAIST team developed a liquid-cooling technology that cools semiconductors from the inside out. It uses ordinary room-temperature water to tackle high-heat-flux conditions at the source.

The design features multiple tiny inlets and outlets scattered uniformly across the chip.

The innovation centers on a “manifold microchannel” structure embedded directly inside the silicon, which mimics an efficient logistics network by using multiple strategic inlet and outlet points. 

This decentralized design shortens the fluid’s travel distance, reducing flow resistance and pumping pressure. The researchers used a multi-fidelity optimization framework to perfectly balance channel dimensions and flow rates.

10x higher efficiency

The KAIST team combined rapid 1D computational models with heavy-duty simulations to map an optimal, perfectly uniform flow. And the experimental results blew past expectations.

Notably, the system registered a cooling Coefficient of Performance (COP) of 106,000. That is an abstract engineering metric, but the context is historic: it is ten times higher than the previous world record published in Nature in 2020. 

In plain terms, it means chip manufacturers need just one-tenth of the pumping power to remove the same amount of heat from a machine. Even under an extreme thermal load of 2,000 watts per square centimeter, the system kept the chip comfortably below 100°C (212°F).

Yet, the most disruptive detail of the experiment is how it’s made.

The researchers didn’t use exotic, hyper-expensive materials like synthetic diamond; instead, they used plain water. Furthermore, the entire fabrication process happens below 350°C (662°F).

It means the process is entirely compatible with existing commercial semiconductor manufacturing lines. Foundries can integrate this plumbing technique into current chip designs without buying billions of dollars in new machinery.

The development was published in the journal Energy Conversion and Management.

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Researchers at Canada’s Western University designed a foam-backed floating photovoltaic (FPV) system. 

It was tested in a stormwater pond in Ontario, Canada. The system generated 7.7 megawatt-hours of electricity over a year, outperforming a standard reference floating system by about 2.7 percent.

“The results of this study established foam-based FPV as a promising and adaptable platform for renewable energy generation,” the team noted in the study paper. 

The ice solution

Solar power has long had a geography problem.

To build the massive solar farms required to displace fossil fuels, developers need land. Usually, that means competing with agriculture or cutting into natural conservation areas. The solution in warmer climates has been “floatovoltaics“—placing solar panels on giant plastic pontoons over lakes and reservoirs.

But if you try that in a Canadian winter, thick moving ice will crush the structures like aluminum cans.

Now, researchers have solved the cold-weather problem using a deceptively simple combination of materials: shipping foam and hot tub bubbles. In particular, a monocrystalline foam-backed FPV system was fabricated.

It shows that floating solar can not only survive freezing temperatures but actually thrive in them. 

Compared with tilted plastic rafts used in warmer climates, this design attaches flexible solar panels directly to thick, waterproof foam sheets, reducing wind exposure.

To prevent ice damage, an underwater air-bubbler system was installed. A shore-based pump pushes bubbles from the bottom of the pond, carrying warmer deep water to the surface to keep the area around the panels ice-free. It acted like a localized defroster.

The results showed that on days when the rest of the pond was frozen, the water directly surrounding the solar array remained completely clear. 

Higher energy yield

Keeping the ice away didn’t break the energy bank, either. Over a year of continuous monitoring, the air-bubbler system consumed as little as 0.02 percent of the total energy the panels generated. At its peak during the worst winter storms, it reduced yield by only 14.5 percent. 

“A regression model developed in this study indicated that the foam-based FPV system generated 7.7. MWh/year, representing up to 2.7% more energy than other PV models,” the study noted. 

It also pulled double duty as a water conservation tool.

In sitting flat against the water’s surface, the foam-backed array acted as a physical shield, blocking direct sunlight and cutting off the wind that typically drives evaporation. The researchers calculated that the relationship between solar coverage and water savings is linear, meaning that every additional square meter of panel added results in a predictable drop in water loss.

“FPV coverage linearly reduced pond evaporation, aiding agricultural water conservation,” the study stated.

If scaled up to cover just half of the Ontario stormwater pond, this innovative setup would trap and save roughly 927 cubic meters of water annually. 

For local communities and farmers, that means keeping hundreds of thousands of gallons of precious water in the reservoir to support agricultural irrigation when it is needed most.

With the concept proven on a small scale, the researchers are looking to take their foam-and-bubble design out of the pond. The next step is testing the technology on a larger scale across harsher, more diverse bodies of water. 

The findings were published in the journal Applied Energy.

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Slicing through the atmosphere at 55,000 feet, NASA’s experimental X-59 reached a vital milestone on Friday, June 12, by hitting Mach 1.4 (roughly 924 mph).

Hitting these exact numbers is a huge deal. Mach 1.4 at 55,000 feet represents the identical speed and cruising height the aircraft will use when it eventually flies over populated American towns.

“Each flight brings NASA one step closer to flying the X-59 over communities and gathering feedback that could help shape the future of commercial supersonic flight over land,” NASA stated. 

Achieving flight conditions

For over fifty years, international aviation regulators have strictly banned civilian supersonic flights over land due to the deafening, window-rattling disruption of sonic booms. 

Established in 1973, this absolute ban has locked commercial air travel to standard subsonic speeds to protect populated areas on the ground.

Developed in partnership with Lockheed Martin, NASA’s X-59 is an experimental aircraft designed for supersonic flight.

In a rapid sequence of testing milestones, NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less first flew the X-59 to Mach 1.1 (713 mph) at 43,400 feet during an 81-minute flight from Edwards Air Force Base on June 5. 

Just one week later, on June 12, the experimental craft successfully pushed its performance envelope even further, accelerating to Mach 1.4 at even higher altitude.

How does the plane bypass the classic explosion? It comes down to design. Standard supersonic jets create air-pressure ripples that quickly clump together into a single, massive shockwave.

The X-59 is built like a needle. Its ultra-long, slender shape separates those air-pressure waves and prevents any combination from occurring. Rather than a loud boom, people on the ground should theoretically hear a gentle, car-door-like “thump.”

Currently, pilots are steadily pushing the aircraft through a battery of complex maneuvers, varying speeds, and diverse altitudes to find its absolute physical performance limits.

Engineers will thoroughly measure the aircraft’s supersonic acoustic signature using ground microphone arrays to confirm that the quiet thump is performing exactly as intended.

Eventually, NASA will take the X-59 out of isolated test spaces and fly it directly over several U.S. communities to openly survey real public perception of the sound.

The F-15 companion

Right now, verifying the plane’s actual acoustic signature is a bit tricky. During these early test flights, the X-59 is trailed closely by a NASA F-15 research fighter jet.

The trailing jet is about to become a critical scientific tool. In upcoming tests, engineers will mount a specialized, shock-sensing probe to the F-15’s nose. This will let researchers fly directly into the wake of the X-59, mapping out its invisible pressure waves and gathering real-time data on its low-boom performance.

Once the data from the community overflights has been fully gathered, NASA plans to hand the findings to international regulatory boards. The hope is to replace the decades-old speed limits with a new, noise-based standard. 

If the public agrees that the X-59 is quiet enough, the aviation industry could see a cutting of cross-country commercial flight times squarely in half.

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