用激光给芯片散热，摩尔定律天花板盖不住了

Core Viewpoint - The article discusses a new cooling method for chips called "photon cooling," developed by Maxwell Labs, which converts heat into light to efficiently remove heat from chip hotspots, significantly improving cooling efficiency compared to traditional methods like air and liquid cooling [4][5][27]. Group 1: Photon Cooling Technology - Photon cooling utilizes the principle of fluorescence, where low-energy light is absorbed and higher-energy light is emitted, leading to cooling effects [9]. - Maxwell Labs has integrated this principle into a thin-film chip-level photon cooling plate that targets hotspots on chips, allowing for precise temperature control [11][13]. - The photon cooling plate consists of several components, including a coupler, micro-cooling area, back reflector, and sensors to detect hotspots and guide the laser [14]. Group 2: Efficiency and Performance Benefits - The photon cooling method can eliminate the "dark silicon" problem, allowing more transistors to operate simultaneously by effectively removing heat from hotspots [27][28]. - This technology can maintain chip temperatures below 50°C, compared to traditional cooling methods that often see temperatures rise to 90-120°C, enabling higher clock frequencies and better performance without increasing transistor density [29][30]. - The method allows for more manageable thermal management in 3D chip designs, making it simpler to remove heat from stacked layers [31]. Group 3: Energy Efficiency and Future Prospects - Laser cooling can reduce overall power consumption by 50% or more when combined with air cooling systems [32]. - The technology can recycle more waste energy than traditional cooling methods, potentially achieving up to 60% energy recovery through thermal photovoltaics [33]. - By 2027, photon cooling is expected to be practical, enhancing cooling efficiency for high-performance computing and AI clusters, with broader deployment in data centers anticipated by 2028-2030 [34].