Coherent launches thermally conductive cold plates aimed at hotter AI chips

Coherent has introduced Thermadite 800 liquid cold plates for high-power compute applications, giving the photonics supplier a new entry point into the market for AI chip cooling. The company says the material delivers thermal conductivity of 800W/(m·K) and is designed to move heat away from accelerators more efficiently than conventional copper-based systems.

Thermadite 800 targets AI accelerator hot spots

Coherent said the cold plates can reduce chip temperatures by more than 15C in high heat-flux AI accelerator environments compared with conventional copper cold plates. The product combines a low coefficient of thermal expansion with high dimensional stability, which the company says helps limit warpage, stress and reliability issues in aggressive liquid cooling designs.

The cold plates are built from a diamond-in-SiC material platform, with internal microchannel architectures that can be tuned to real chip heat maps. That design approach is intended to focus cooling where thermal load is highest while reducing pressure drop and coolant use.

Why the material matters for data-center operators

The launch arrives as AI infrastructure continues to push thermal limits in data centers, where cooling requirements are becoming a larger operational and energy burden. In that environment, materials that can move heat more quickly and tolerate higher mechanical stress can affect rack density, system reliability and cooling-system operating costs.

Coherent is also framing the product as a manufacturable platform rather than a lab-scale demo. The company said Thermadite 800 liquid cold plates leverage its vertically integrated materials development, precision fabrication and high-volume manufacturing capabilities, suggesting it is aiming at commercial deployment rather than a one-off prototype.

Coherent’s next public showing for Thermadite

Examples of the new cold plates are slated to appear at the SEMI-THERM Symposium & Exposition 2026 and OFC 2026, giving customers and partners a closer look at how the material may fit into next-generation cooling stacks. For an industry under pressure to support hotter AI chips without expanding facility overhead, the launch is another sign that thermal management is moving deeper into the materials-engineering phase of the data-center race.