Does direct liquid cooling get rid of the need for gap fillers?

No. As liquid cooling extends to NICs, power boards, and optical modules, additional components can require interfaces to shared or separate cold plates. This can increase the need for gap fillers across a tray.

Will 800 VDC power distribution make GPU trays easier to cool?

Not by itself. 800 VDC cuts conversion steps and losses in the facility power chain (Blake et al., 2025), but DC/DC stages inside the rack still step power down to GPU core voltage, and tray cooling depends on where those losses land and how the converters are placed.

What about indium solder or liquid metal TIMs?

Indium solder, compressed foil, and liquid metal offer different assembly and service trade-offs (see our metal TIM guide). Solder requires compatible surface metallization and controlled bonding; compressed indium foil avoids reflow but still depends on contact load and surface geometry. Early Rubin reports described liquid-metal TIM2 with gold-plated mating surfaces (Chu et al., 2026). Later reporting linked a heat-spreader redesign to substrate warpage (TrendForce, 2026). SPIL’s liquid-metal composites also show why formulation matters: both had lower thermal resistance than a 4 W/m·K silicone TIM, while carbon-fiber and silicone-matrix variants retained 95% and 75% coverage after 1,000 hours at 150 °C (Ahmad et al., 2026). Liquid metal is an option for compatible bare-die designs, with electrical conductivity and containment remaining key constraints. For lower-flux TIM2, a removable phase change material is often a practical starting point, if it meets tray requirements.

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Contents Why High-Power AI Racks Change the Thermal Interface Design Where Liquid Cooling Meets the GPU Package How Liquid Cooling Is Changing Interface Requirements Thermal Impedance and Heat Flow Bond Line…