Liquid Cooling
Systems
About Laird Thermal Systems
Laird Thermal Systems develops thermal management solutions
for demanding applications across global medical, industrial,
transportation and telecommunications markets. We manufacture
one of the most diverse product portfolios in the industry ranging
from active thermoelectric coolers and assemblies to temperature
controllers and liquid cooling systems. Our engineers use
advanced thermal modeling and management techniques to solve
complex heat and temperature control problems. By offering a
broad range of design, prototyping and in-house testing
capabilities, we partner closely with our customers across the
entire product development lifecycle to reduce risk and accelerate
their time-to-market. Our global manufacturing and support
resources help customers maximize productivity, uptime,
performance and product quality. Laird Thermal Systems is the
optimum choice for standard or custom thermal solutions.
Laird Thermal Systems partners with its customers to design
custom thermal solutions for applications in many industries
including:
• Medical Diagnostics
• Medical Imaging
• Battery Cooling
• Industrial Laser Systems
• Optoelectronics
Introduction
Thermal management of electronic components and systems is
more challenging than ever. Power densities continue to increase,
while product form factors continue to shrink. Engineers must
now consider thermal management early in the product
development cycle to make sure sufficient space and power is
available to remove heat from their system. Simple thermal
management solutions, such as a heat sink fan mechanism, are no
longer viable to keep critical systems operating at peak
performance.
In today’s complex operating environment, liquid cooling systems
are required to dissipate a large amount of heat in a densely
packed electronic environment. Maximum operational life is
required to keep system maintenance and repair down time to a
minimum. Temperature stabilization has especially become critical,
as next generation systems require more precise temperature
control.
Liquid cooling systems are self-contained units that recirculate a
coolant to a predefined temperature set point. There are two
types of liquid cooling solutions. The first is a liquid heat
exchanger system that cools the coolant in a liquid circuit to
ambient temperature. This system consists of a pump to circulate
coolant, a liquid heat exchanger to dissipate heat and a liquid
circuit to transfer coolant from the heat source to the liquid
cooling system. The second type is a compressor-based system,
or recirculating chiller, that encompasses a compressor system
instead of a liquid heat exchanger assembly. It is used to cool the
coolant to well below ambient and dissipate heat to the outside
environment. Additional features can be included to add
temperature control, variable flow control, bypass control, coolant
filtration and electronics in order to meet unique attribute
requirements. Compatibility of material selection to coolant is also
critical in order to minimize corrosion and keep loose oxidized
particles from obstructing flow.
PID Recirculating Chiller
• Analytical Instrumentation
• Semiconductor Fabrication
• Aerospace Defense
• Food & Beverage
• Automotive
www.lairdthermal.com
Benefits of Liquid Cooling Systems
Liquid cooling systems are unique to the thermal management
market in that they use a coolant to transfer heat. Most engineers
are concerned about introducing liquids to their electronics, but if
the unit is designed and assembled correctly, it becomes a non-
issue. Liquid cooling systems have several advantages over
conventional air-cooled systems.
• High Heat Pumping Capacity. Liquid heat exchangers can
reduce the thermal resistance of conventional heat sink fan
dissipation mechanisms by a factor of 10 or more. This is due
to the poor thermal properties of air versus coolants such as
water.
• High Heat Flux Density. Liquid cooling systems can remove up
to five times the amount of heat per square area over
conventional air cooling systems. This becomes advantageous
in densely packed electronics with limited space to
accommodate an air cooling mechanism.
• Heat Routing. Liquid cooling allows the integration of a small
heat exchanger to be located at the heat source, which then
routes heat away through a liquid circuit. This is advantageous
in densely packed electronics where a conventional air cooling
system pushes air all around system and potentially adds heat
to the system from other hot electronics in close proximity
• Rapid Cool Down. Cool down time is a function of cooling
capacity. Liquid cooling systems have larger cooling capacities
than conventional heat sink fan mechanisms, which will reduce
the time it takes to reach temperature.
• Lower Noise. Systems with high heat removal requirements of
one kilowatt or higher require much larger fans to generate
the air flow needed to dissipate heat. This makes the air
cooling system noisier, exposes system to higher vibration and
potentially requires a larger system than that of an liquid
cooling system.
Liquid Cooling Applications
Laird Thermal Systems provides
robust liquid cooling solutions for
many of the high-performance
applications found in the medical,
industrial and semiconductor
markets. Systems are designed to
maximize temperature stabilization
at above, below, or equal to
ambient temperature. Service life
expectations can exceed more than
20 years in the field.
Healthcare Diagnostics &
Treatment
• Medical Imaging
• Medical Lasers
• Medical Diagnostics
• Centrifuges
• Radiation Therapy
Industrial Instrumentation
• Security X-Ray Scanning
• Non-Destructive Test
• Digital Printing
Semiconductor Fabrication
• Metrology
• Plasma/Wet Etch
• Lithography
• Electron Microscope
• Industrial Lasers
• Chemical/Physical
Vapor Deposition
• Rapid Thermal Processing
Recirculating Chillers
400 W- 5 kW
Setpoint
0.1
50°C Above
Ambient
30°C Below
Ambient
100
Liquid to Air
Cooling Systems
1 - 5 kW
Liquid to Liquid Cooling Systems
5 - 100 kW
Cabinet Coolers
<1 kW
Cooling Capacity (kW)