Special Issue Information

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is driving unprecedented increases in computing power, chip power density, and data-center energy consumption. Higher transistor densities, heterogeneous integration, and complex packaging architectures have made thermal management a critical constraint on the performance, reliability, efficiency, and scalability of AI systems. Addressing localized hotspots, interfacial thermal resistance, nonuniform heat generation, and facility-level cooling demand requires advances spanning fundamental thermal transport, high-conductivity materials, advanced packaging, embedded and microfluidic cooling, liquid and two-phase cooling, and intelligent data-center operation.

We are pleased to announce the Thermo-X Special Issue, “Thermal Management of AI Chips and Data Centers: From Fundamental Transport to Advanced Cooling Technologies.” The Issue welcomes high-impact Original Research Articles, Reviews, and Perspectives on thermal mechanisms, emerging materials, advanced cooling technologies, and integrated solutions across scales—from transistors and chiplets to packages, servers, and data centers. We invite submissions covering topics including, but not limited to:

• Fundamental Thermal Transport in AI Chips: Heat generation and transport in high-power semiconductor devices; nanoscale and microscale thermal transport; hotspot formation and evolution; multiphysics and multiscale modeling of heat generation and dissipation in transistors and AI chips.
• Thermal Characterization and Hotspot Detection: High-spatial- and high-temporal-resolution thermometry; operando temperature mapping; junction-temperature measurement; thermal resistance and thermal boundary resistance characterization, and other advanced diagnostic techniques.
• Thermal Interface and Heat-Spreading Materials: High-performance thermal interface materials; diamond-based substrates, heat spreaders, and lid materials; graphene, boron nitride, composites, and other high-thermal-conductivity materials; interface engineering.
• Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration: Thermal challenges in chiplet architectures, 2.5D and 3D integration, system-in-package technologies, interposers, through-silicon vias, hybrid bonding, and vertically stacked devices; electro-thermal co-design; thermomechanical reliability; thermal-aware placement and package optimization.
• Embedded and Microfluidic Cooling: On-chip and in-package microchannels; embedded microfluidic cooling; manifold microchannel heat sinks; jet impingement; dielectric liquid cooling; cooling of three-dimensional integrated circuits; flow and heat-transfer optimization in microscale cooling structures.
• Liquid and Phase-Change Cooling Technologies: Single- and two-phase immersion cooling, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, spray cooling, flow boiling, evaporative cooling, heat pipes, vapor chambers, thermosyphons, and coolant distribution systems for high-heat-flux AI chips and servers.
• Thermal Management of Data Centers: Rack- and facility-level cooling; airflow and liquid-flow management; waste-heat recovery and reuse; energy-efficient cooling architectures; power usage effectiveness and water usage effectiveness; thermal management under variable AI workloads; integration with renewable energy and district energy systems.

Submissions presenting experimental, theoretical, computational, or data-driven approaches are welcome. Contributions that bridge fundamental mechanisms with materials, device, packaging, cooling-system, or data-center applications are particularly encouraged.

We invite researchers and engineers from academia, industry, and national laboratories worldwide to contribute to this Special Issue. All submitted manuscripts will undergo a rigorous peer-review process to ensure scientific quality, originality, and relevance to the thermal challenges of emerging AI computing technologies.

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