Simulation and experimental investigation of liquid-cooling thermal management for high-bandwidth co-packaged optics

This study explores the application of cold plate liquid cooling technology in co-packaged optics (CPO). By integrating optical modules and the switch chip on the same substrate, CPO shortens the electrical interconnection distance, effectively solving the problems of high power consumption and poor signal integrity of traditional pluggable optical modules under high bandwidth. However, the surge in power density and the thermal crosstalk resulting from high integration density make thermal management one of the key challenges that constrain the reliability of high-capacity co-packaged optics. For the unique architecture of CPO, this study analyzes its heat dissipation needs in detail, and a thermal management scheme is designed. The thermal management scheme is simulated and optimized based on the Navier-Stokes equation. The simulation results show that, in a 51.2 Tbit/s CPO system, the junction temperature of the switch chip is 97.3 °C, the maximum junction temperature of the optical modules is 31.3 °C, and the temperature difference between the optical modules is 2.4 °C to 1.2 °C. To verify the simulation results, a thermal test experimental platform is built, and the experimental results show that the temperature simulation difference is within 4% and the pressure change trend is consistent with the simulation. Combining the experimental data and simulation results, the designed heat sink can satisfy the heat dissipation demands of the 51.2 Tbit/s bandwidth CPO system. This conclusion demonstrates the potential of liquid-cooling technology in CPO, providing support for research on liquid-cooling technology in the CPO. The design provides a theoretical and practical basis for the high performance and reliability of optoelectronic integration technology in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems and micro-ring device applications, contributing to the application of next-generation optical communication networks.