CooliBlade is the next-generation thermal management solutions provider for high-power electronics. CooliBlade is a spin-off from VTT, the largest research center conducting applied technology research in Finland. The company got its beginnings in the VTT LaunchPad deep-tech incubator program.
Interview Janne Suhonen, CEO of CooliBlade.
A brief description of the company.
Janne Suhonen: CooliBlade’s NEOcore solution is based on thermal channels that are integrated directly to solid aluminum heat sink structure, and it’s suitable for electronics from hundreds of watts up to several kilowatts. NEOcore improves the thermal conductivity of aluminum up to 1000 times.
Efficient cooling has been the eternal challenge in power electronics design. CooliBlade NEOcore technology enables power-electronics companies to develop the most reliable and high-performance products for electrification and green transition. Our thermal management products offer significant benefits: improved energy efficiency, extended equipment lifespan, and reduced carbon footprint.
What are the main areas of activity of the company?
J.S: The green transition and the need for more powerful and compact electronic devices are pushing innovation in electronics cooling as traditional approaches become inadequate due to increased power densities and reduced surface area for heat dissipation. Reliability and maintenance-free operation are critical, leading to efforts to avoid liquid cooling whenever possible. However, as power densities continue to increase, liquid cooling is becoming an inevitable trend for high-power applications where air and passive cooling methods alone are insufficient. Liquid cooling offers superior thermal capacity and efficiency, particularly in applications requiring extreme heat dissipation, but it must be carefully integrated into the system to ensure reliability and minimize maintenance.
CooliBlade has developed a proprietary NEOcore technology, which offers air-cooled aluminum heatsinks significantly improved thermal conductivity and performance, addressing the challenges associated with increased power densities in modern electronic devices.
CooliBlade NEOcore technology’s ability to transfer heat is exceptionally high, with a very large maximum heat flux. NEOcore can also handle high power densities. Current state-of-the-art heat pipes dry out, causing overheating at high power densities, whereas the NEOcore technology has a much higher power density limit, offering an advantage with modern and future component types. For example, the small size of SiC chips increases the demands for cooling at higher power densities.
What’s the news about new products?
J.S: CooliBlade’s cutting-edge NEOcore technology is designed for optimal thermal conductivity and integrability. The integrated thermal channel enables optimal transfer of heat from the component to the ambient air. CooliBlade has designed new advanced phase change technology and a structure that creates the “Highway for Heat” even for the most demanding power electronics applications.
CooliBlade’s NEOcore technology enables advanced thermal management solutions featuring fully integrated thermosiphon channels inside aluminum structures. While NEOcore operates using a sophisticated two-phase cooling process, the heat sink itself maintains the robustness of a traditional aluminum heat sink, ensuring durability and ease of implementation.
The integration of the thermosiphon channel inside the aluminum heat sink enhances thermal conductivity by up to 1000 times compared to pure aluminum heat sinks, providing a highly efficient and compact cooling solution. This design effectively minimizes temperature differentials across the heat sink and between the heat source and ambient air, offering significantly lower thermal resistance compared to standard solutions, making it suitable for power applications ranging from tens of watts to several kilowatts of thermal power.
CooliBlade’s innovation offers high-power electronics applications a cost-effective development and production, reduced time-to-market, and ensures a smooth transition from prototype to mass production. With growing importance in the green technology and electrification sectors, advanced thermal management solutions like CooliBlade NEOcore technology are critical to the future of power electronics supporting the green transition.
What are the ranges of products?
J.S: CooliBlade NEOcore technology offers significantly lower thermal resistance compared to current state-of-the-art solutions, making it suitable for power electronics applications ranging from hundreds of watts to beyond 20 kilowatts of thermal power.
CooliBlade offers a broad scale of thermal management solutions and products from ready-made heat sinks to R&D services and OEM products designed for customers from various segments, including industrial control, AC drives, IGBT, renewable energy, power inverters/converters, LED lighting, and electro-mechanical devices.
What is the state of the market where you are currently active?
J.S: The demand for more powerful and compact electronic devices continues to grow, driven by the green transition, electrification, and new component technologies. There is a fast market transition ongoing in all of CooliBlade’s selected segments, including industrial IGBT, 5G telecommunications, LED lighting, energy storage, EV mobility, special electronics, AC drives, motor control, renewable energy, power inverters/converters, and light electronics products. This transition opens new significant market opportunities for innovative solution providers like CooliBlade in thermal management segment.
What can you tell us about market trends?
J.S: Climate change, green transition, and electrification are megatrends pushing innovation in electronics cooling as traditional solutions are becoming more and more inadequate. Reliability and maintenance-free operation are critical, leading to efforts to avoid liquid cooling whenever possible.
However, as power densities continue to increase, liquid cooling is becoming an inevitable trend for high-power applications where air and passive cooling methods alone are insufficient. Liquid cooling offers superior thermal capacity and efficiency, particularly in applications requiring extreme heat dissipation, but it must be carefully integrated into the system to ensure reliability and minimize maintenance.
CooliBlade NEOcore technology offers air-cooled aluminum heatsinks significantly improved thermal conductivity and performance, addressing the challenges associated with increased power densities in modern electronic devices.
What are the most innovative products marketed?
J.S: CooliBlade NEOcore redefines thermal management as NEOcore improves the thermal conductivity of aluminum up to 1000 times.
Thermal management is one of the most challenging phases of product development that affects the product’s size, weight, performance, and lifespan. CooliBlade NEOcore makes it easy to take thermal management as an integrated part of the product design process.
With NEOcore, application developers can speed up the product design and development cycles, and the modularity of the NEOcore technology offers scalability for cooling performance. All this improves the performance, lifespan, and power-to-weight ratio of power electronics products.
What estimations do you have for the rest of 2024?
J.S: The green transition and demand for more sustainable solutions continue to grow rapidly. CooliBlade’s cutting-edge cooling solutions are designed to enhance the performance and longevity of power electronics systems, ensuring a positive environmental impact. We expect this trend to continue not only in the developed world but also in developing countries as the catastrophic consequences of global warming become more evident.