If it seems like the semiconductor market is back in the spotlight, that’s because it really is. ASML, the world’s leading supplier of photolithography systems, recently reported that the company’s share value has risen by around 97% in the last six months, reflecting a renewed increase in investment in chip manufacturing. However, behind the headlines is a less high-profile, and perhaps equally important, issue related to managing the heat generated both during chip production and by the AI equipment that depends on them, explains Ben Kitson, director of business development at chemical etch manufacturing company Precision Micro.
The current cycle is atypical. Technology giants are pouring huge resources into AI data centres, generating unprecedented demand for high-performance hardware. What’s more, much of this computing hardware has already been contracted, according to Simply Wall St.
This combination poses a real challenge for infrastructure planning, as AI system operators face high power density and unprecedented cooling requirements in their data centres.
Traditional data centres were designed for racks with power consumption of 5-10 kW, but AI clusters now consume 30-50 kW per rack. Furthermore, advanced GPU and accelerator platforms are now reaching 100-120 kW per rack, meaning that air cooling alone is no longer sufficient.
Thermal management at the forefront
Thermal constraints are finally starting to attract attention. In May 2025, semiconductor giant Nvidia announced that hyperscale operators are installing tens of thousands of its latest GPUs every week, and the pace of deployment is set to accelerate further with the introduction of the ‘Blackwell Ultra’ platform.
According to the company’s public development plan, its next ‘Ruby Ultra’ architecture will allow more than 500 GPUs to be housed in a single server rack with up to 600 kW of power consumption, highlighting the scale of the cooling challenges currently facing artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Across the AI infrastructure sector, thermal stability has become a key constraint not only in chip design, but also in the infrastructure required to power and cool high-density computing environments.
High-performance liquid cooling systems and microchannel heat exchangers have ceased to be niche solutions and have become essential components. The same engineering principles – precise control of fluid flow, maximisation of heat transfer and production of compact components with tight tolerances – apply to many applications today.
The engineering expertise gained in high-precision semiconductor environments is now being applied to printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) technology for AI data centres, which is the interface between electronics manufacturing and energy infrastructure.
Why PCHE systems matter
PCHE systems are not just a more advanced version of conventional designs such as shell-and-tube or plate-and-frame heat exchangers. They are smaller, lighter and more efficient, making them ideal for space-constrained and high-density installations.
In data centres, this translates into a higher number of racks per square metre without compromising reliability, while at the same time reducing the energy required to cool the computing equipment.
Energy efficiency is another factor, as AI workloads are predicted to cause a significant increase in global electricity demand. Goldman Sachs forecasts an increase of up to 165% by 2030, meaning that every watt of energy used for cooling counts.
Compact, high-performance PCHEs not only save installation space, but also help control energy costs and improve the overall energy efficiency ratio (PUE), becoming a key component of high-density AI infrastructures in hyperscale environments.
Chemical digestion scaling
The very qualities that make PCHEs so effective – microchannels, large heat transfer area and tight tolerances – simultaneously make them difficult to manufacture. Conventional machining allows prototyping, but is slow, causes burrs and is not cost-effective for volume production.
Chemical etching, on the other hand, eliminates these problems by creating all the channels simultaneously over the entire surface of the plate. In this way, precise stress-free structures are achieved, and then the finished heat exchanger plate is created by diffusion welding.
Chemical etching company Precision Micro has been producing PCHE boards since the technology was introduced to the market in the 1990s. It has a specialist 4,100sq m facility that is capable of processing thousands of boards up to 1.5 metres long and up to 2 mm thick each week. This enables batch production of etched plates and makes the facility one of the largest sheet etching centres of its kind in the world.
This is because scaling production to thousands of boards requires tightly controlled chemical processes and rigorous quality control. Few suppliers in the world have the expertise, production capacity and process control system necessary to mass-produce etched PCHE boards.
Pressure on the supply chain
Producing PCHE boards in high volumes requires significant capital investment and advanced technological processes. Although new production capacity is emerging in Asian markets, many OEMs in Europe and North America continue to emphasise reliability, process repeatability and quality as key criteria when sourcing precision components.
Working with established regional partners can reduce logistical complexity, improve intellectual property protection and ensure consistent quality, especially when supply chains are looking for local suppliers of core competencies.
Etched flow plates and high-performance heat exchangers are an essential, but often invisible, part of the AI ecosystem. Through precise temperature control, they help data centres maintain high-density computing racks without the risk of overheating and enable reliable and efficient scalability of AI infrastructure.
This is the hidden reality behind the renewed increase in investment in chip manufacturing. Innovation is not just driven by smaller transistors, new node geometries or more efficient GPUs. They also depend on the physical infrastructure that enables these technologies to operate reliably at industrial scale.
PCHE chips may not attract as much attention as chips or artificial intelligence models, but they underpin the performance, efficiency and scalability of both. Where every watt of energy and every fraction of a degree of temperature counts, precision thermal hardware is quietly enabling the progress of one of the fastest growing technology cycles of the last decade.
Source: Precision Micro
