Description:
As high-TDP AI accelerators such as NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin and Feynman push direct-to-chip liquid cooling toward 45ºC warm-water operation and finer microchannel cold-plate geometries, coolant cleanliness is no longer a secondary spec — it’s a direct driver of cold-plate reliability and system uptime. Undetected particle contamination, corrosion inhibitor depletion, and biofouling can silently compromise thermal performance long before a failure is visible at the rack level.
This session, sponsored by PFX Group — a chemical manufacturer with in-house formulation, manufacturing, and fluid-monitoring expertise — joined by Dell’Oro Group and the OCP will break down how PG25 and water-based coolant requirements are evolving for next-generation liquid-cooled systems, what fluid condition monitoring actually looks for in the technology cooling system (TCS) loop, and practical criteria – filtration ratings, sampling cadence, and wetted-material compatibility —operators and hardware designers can use to evaluate fluid readiness before next-gen deployment.
What will you learn?
- Importance of heat transfer fluid cleanliness in next-generation liquid cooling systems
- Impact of particle size and particle count on microchannel cold plates
- Evolving heat transfer fluid requirements for platforms such as NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin and Feynman
- How heat transfer fluids change as they age in service
- Key parameters to monitor when assessing fluid health
- Testing and remediation strategies for aging fluids
- Role of fluid selection and condition monitoring in supporting system reliability and uptime
Who should attend?
- Data center operators and owners
- CDU manufacturers
- Rack and server manufacturers
- Hyperscalers and AI infrastructure teams
- Data center and thermal engineers
- Cold-plate and liquid-cooling hardware designers
- Data center service contractors
- Chip designers and manufacturers
- Data center hardware contractors (e.g. Foxconn)
- Data center service and commissioning contractors
- Fleet & facility reliability owners
Speakers:
Tom Corrigan, Ph.D.
Director of Electrification Technology, PFX Group
Holding a PhD in chemistry, Tom is an expert in thermal management fluids, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, and the latest data center technologies. He utilizes his specialty chemical and industry experience to drive the development of technology to enable fast paced data center advancement at PFX Group.
Alex Cordovil
Research Director, Data Center Physical Infrastructure, Data Center Liquid Cooling Markets, Dell’Oro Group
Alex Cordovil joined Dell’Oro Group in 2025 and is responsible for coverage of the Data Center Physical Infrastructure and Data Center Liquid Cooling markets. Mr. Cordovil has extensive expertise in data center infrastructure, AI impact analysis, and business transformation. Prior to joining Dell’Oro Group, he has led global programs in channel development, strategic planning, partner ecosystem redesign, and performance management, and previously spent over a decade consulting on strategic and operational challenges across multiple industries.
Cliff Grossner, Ph.D.
Chief Innovation Officer, Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP)
At the Open Compute Project Foundation, Dr. Grossner leads its market intelligence function and is responsible for driving awareness of OCP, training and certification programs, and guiding inventors presenting their early-stage company ideas to potential investors. Dr. Grossner has more than 25 years of telecommunications industry experience encompassing scientific research, market analysis, corporate and product strategy, product management and marketing. His current interests include IT Ecosystems from cloud to the edge looking at the equipment [servers, IT networking and storage] and software, and physical infrastructure [power and cooling] needed for computation, with a focus on edge computing, silicon components included in IT equipment including coprocessors for AI and ML. Previously, Dr. Grossner was head of the Cloud and Data Center Research Practice, which he launched at Infonetics research and followed through transitions to IHS, IHS Markit and Informa Group. Prior to Infonetics, he held senior positions, including heading strategic marketing for Alcatel-Lucent’s enterprise network business, tenures at Bell Labs, several startups and Nortel. He earned his Ph.D. at McGill University, and his Master of Science in Computer Science at Concordia University, winning national scholarships to support his graduate work. He holds more than 10 patents in computer networking, networking embedded security and telecommunications applications.