Metal foam cores for cooler chips and cleaner hydrogen

apheros makes a patented metal foam with 1,000× the surface area of conventional alternatives. We build it into cold plates for AI data centers and electrodes for green hydrogen.

Contact us See how the foam works

An ETH Zürich spin-off, backed by

  • ETH Zürich spin-off
  • Innosuisse
  • NVIDIA Inception Program
  • ESA Business Incubation Centre Switzerland
  • Founderful
  • BRIDGE
  • Venture Kick
  • Wissenschaft bewegen, Gebert Rüf Stiftung
  • W.A. de Vigier Stiftung

Data center cooling

Inside an apheros cold plate

Coolant flows through a copper foam core instead of machined fins, pulling heat straight off the chip.

The core

apheros copper foam

Porosity
65–95 %
Pore size
50–150 micron
Specific surface
>10⁶ m²/m³
Cold plate thermal resistance
0.007 °C/W at 2 L/min

One process, two metals

Same foam, second frontier

We make copper foam for cooling and nickel foam for electrolysis with the same process. Only the metal changes.

Green hydrogen

Inside an electrolyser

Water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. Water enters from below; oxygen leaves on one side, hydrogen on the other. Our open-pore nickel foam lets gas and liquid move freely, with no noble metals.

The core

apheros open-pore nickel foam

Porosity
75–95 %
Efficiency vs. commercial transport layers
15 %
Electrolysers
AWE and AEM
Noble metals
None

One metal foam core. Two frontiers.

Data center cooling

Copper foam cold plates for >1 kW GPUs and CPUs.

Cold plates

Green hydrogen

Nickel foam electrodes for AWE and AEM electrolysers.

Electrodes

Metallurgy that borrows from the kitchen

Conventional metal foams are built layer by layer on sacrificial templates. We whisk ours. The apheros process takes its cues from food science and traditional metallurgy, so it scales without the cost and shape limits of template methods.

  1. Mix

    Metal powder goes into a water-based slurry.

  2. Foam

    A controlled foaming step builds the open-pore architecture.

  3. Cast

    The foam is poured into molds, shaped to the part.

  4. Heat-treatment

    A thermal treatment locks in the final structure.

Capillary action pulls liquid straight into the foam.

Ultra-high surface area

Surface areas thousands of times larger than conventional metal foams, with pore sizes of 50–150 micron. Large reaction surfaces in a compact, lightweight part.

Open porosity

Large, fully interconnected pores form a hierarchical network of open cells, so fluid flows freely through the whole part.

High wettability

Liquid wicks quickly into the interior. A high capillary limit makes the foam useful well beyond cooling.

Drop-in replacement

Bond, weld or machine it with standard processes. It fits the systems you already build.

Material at a glance

Copper foam porosity
65–95 %
Nickel foam porosity
75–95 %
Density
0.9–2.2 g/cm³
Pore size
50–150 micron
Specific surface
>1,000,000 m²/m³
Materials
Cu, Ni, other metals and alloys on request

Composition, porosity and pore size can be adjusted without retooling.

One metal foam, two frontiers

Everything we build starts with the foam. We take it into two markets that matter equally to us: cooling the chips that run AI, and making green hydrogen affordable.

Scanning electron micrograph of apheros metal foam: a lace-like network of struts, every wall riddled with micro-pores
apheros metal foam under the scanning electron microscope 200 µm
Render of an apheros cold plate with elbow fittings mounted on a server board

Data center cooling

Cold plates with the lowest thermal resistance on the market

Copper foam breaks up the boundary layer and forces the coolant to mix. With far more heat-exchange surface than fins or microchannels, our single-phase cold plate stays ahead even at low flow, so you can run smaller pumps and simpler loops.

Thermal resistance at 2 L/min
0.007 °C/W
vs. high-performance fin designs
~70 % lower
vs. commercial standard, >1 kW GPU/CPU
+75 %
Advantage holds down to
1 L/min

Next up: a two-phase cold plate with the highest nucleation site density of any comparable solution. We're looking for pilot partners.

Request copper data
Wind turbines along a green ridge at sunset

Green hydrogen

Electrodes that make green hydrogen cheaper

Nickel foam electrodes for alkaline (AWE) and anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysers. They replace meshes, felts and sintered powders, let gas and liquid move freely, and are made from abundant materials in a process built for GW-scale supply.

Efficiency vs. commercial transport layers
15 %
Specific surface area
>10⁶ m²/m³
Electrolyser types
AWE and AEM
Noble metals required
None

Lowest operating voltage at high current densities in AEM electrolysis, in our internal benchmarks. We're open to pilots and co-development.

Discuss a pilot
A hand holding an open brass compass against a misty mountain valley

Emerging applications

What else the foam can do

  • Batteries: electrodes and current collectors with faster ion transport and better heat dissipation.
  • Carbon capture: ultra-porous copper for turning CO₂ into ethylene or ethanol, in testing with R&D partners.
  • Heat pipes and vapor chambers: thin wicks with faster wicking and more nucleation sites.

From an ETH lab to a factory in Baden

apheros was founded in 2023 as an ETH Zürich spin-off, built on co-founder Julia Carpenter's PhD research in materials science. Today we're a commercially focused deep-tech company, and in 2025 we moved production, scaling, product and business development into our own facility in Baden.

The team spans materials science, mechanical engineering, simulation, electrochemistry and business development. An advisory board from venture capital, academic research and industry backs us up.

apheros co-founders Dr. Julia Carpenter and Dr. Gaëlle Andreatta standing together in front of a glass wall
Co-founders Dr. Julia Carpenter (CEO) and Dr. Gaëlle Andreatta (CTO)
This is apheros, in 39 seconds.

The team

    We contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 5, 7, 8, 9 and 12.

    Backers & press

    In good company

    Backed by Swiss innovation institutions, foundations and investors, and followed by the people who write about deep tech.

    • CHF 1.1Minnovation grant from Innosuisse
    • $1.85Mpre-seed round with Founderful
    • 3 / 3Venture Kick stages won

    In the press

    How apheros plans to take the heat out of the world's data centres Read on Forbes

    News

    All news
    CoolingHydrogenAwards 25 November 2026, Google Zürich Finalist for the Swiss Technology Award 2026 We're one of three finalists in the Start-ups (Rising Stars) category. The winners are announced at the Swiss Technology Award Night.
    The apheros team in branded black shirts and hoodies, gathered in the Baden facility
    The apheros team at our facility in Baden.

    Join us in Baden

    We hire for resilience, collaboration and ownership as much as for expertise. If you want to build hardware the AI industry and the energy transition are waiting for, take a look at our open roles.

    All jobs on JOIN

    What do you need to cool?

    Tell us about your chip, your loop and your flow rates. We will come back with data, or a sample.

    Contact us Follow us on LinkedIn
    apheros AG
    Fabrikstrasse 3
    5400 Baden
    Switzerland
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