Patent Application
20060048932
Thermal dissipation devices like heat sinks appear in many applications. A heat sink may be, for example, a metal mass that is thermally coupled (e.g., attached) to a heat source and that draws heat energy away from the heat source by conduction. The heat energy may then be dissipated from surfaces of the heat sink into an atmosphere by convection. The convection effect may be enhanced, for example, by a fan. Heat sources and their related heat dissipation requirements may vary widely. Thus, heat sinks may vary widely. Heat sinks may vary in size, material, surface area, fin design, inclusion of a fan, inclusion of a liquid element, and so on.
Conventionally, a heat source (e.g., integrated circuit (IC)) may have its heat dissipation requirements determined and then a heat sink may be selected and/or designed to meet those heat dissipation requirements. However, a system may include a number of heat sources and thus a system may include a number of different heat sinks. Increasing the number and type of heat sinks can increase system complexity and cost, manufacturing complexity and cost, warehousing costs, and so on. Furthermore, the heat dissipation requirements of a heat source may change based on an application in which it is employed. For example, a microprocessor that is clocked at a first speed may have a first heat dissipation requirement but that same microprocessor clocked at a second speed may have a second heat dissipation requirement.
To address these cost/complexity and other concerns, some conventional heat sinks may be upgraded by having a fan bolted on to their top. Other heat sinks may include programmable fans that can react to varying heat dissipation requirements. Still other heat sinks may be designed to be easily removed from an integrated circuit and replaced with a different heat sink. While these approaches may address some cost/complexity concerns, they may raise others like part proliferation, warehousing complexity, inventory control, order fulfillment, and so on. For example, one IC may be associated with three heat sinks. For a first system a first heat sink would be acquired/manufactured, warehoused, picked, and applied to an IC during system manufacture. In a second system, a second heat sink would be acquired/manufactured, warehoused, picked, and applied to the IC during system manufacture while in a third system, a third heat sink would be acquired/manufactured, warehoused, picked, and applied to the sink during system manufacture. If the heat dissipation requirements of the IC in the first system changed, then a customer may order the second or third heat sink which would then be picked, shipped, billed, and so on, to the customer, who may retrofit the heat sink to the IC after removing the initially installed heat sink.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate various example systems, methods, and so on, that illustrate various example embodiments of aspects of the invention. It will be appreciated that the illustrated element boundaries (e.g., boxes, groups of boxes, or other shapes) in the figures represent one example of the boundaries. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that one element may be designed as multiple elements or that multiple elements may be designed as one element. An element shown as an internal component of another element may be implemented as an external component and vice versa. Furthermore, elements may not be drawn to scale.
Example systems described herein concern a configurable heat sink. One example heat sink may include a base portion to which different accessories may be attached. An example system may include a first accessory like a lid or cover that forms an assembly with the base portion of the heat sink and allows the assembly to operate in a first manner. For example, a multi-directional flow heat sink with the cover in place may operate as a through-flow device. An example system may also include a second accessory like a fan that forms an assembly with the base portion of the heat sink and allows the assembly to operate in a second manner. For example, a multi-directional flow heat sink with the cover removed and a fan in its place may operate as an impinging-flow device. While two accessories and two air-flow configurations are described, it is to be appreciated that the examples are not so limited. For example, a heat sink may be provided with a set of accessories removably attached to the heat sink. A user may then configure the heat sink for a particular platform or for a particular heat dissipation task by removing a subset of accessories (e.g., covers, fans) while leaving another subset in place.
The following includes definitions of selected terms employed herein. The definitions include various examples and/or forms of components that fall within the scope of a term and that may be used for implementation. The examples are not intended to be limiting. Both singular and plural forms of terms may be within the definitions.
“Computer-readable medium”, as used herein, refers to a medium that participates in directly or indirectly providing signals, instructions and/or data. A computer-readable medium may take forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical or magnetic disks, and so on. Volatile media may include, for example, optical or magnetic disks, dynamic memory and the like. Common forms of a computer-readable medium include, but are not limited to, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, other magnetic media, a CD-ROM, other optical media, a RAM, a ROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, or other memory chip or card, a memory stick, a carrier wave/pulse, and other media from which a computer, a processor or other electronic device can read. Signals used to propagate instructions or other software over a network, like the Internet, can be considered a “computer-readable medium.”
The heat sink apparatus 100 may include a base 110. The base 110 may have a first surface and a second surface(s). While base 110 is illustrated being substantially rectangular in
The second surface(s) may be configured with an aperture(s) 130 through which a medium like air, water, and so on, may flow. The aperture(s) 130 may facilitate bringing a medium in contact with or into the area of a heat dissipation apparatus located in the base 110. While the heat dissipation apparatus is described being in the base 110, it is to be appreciated that the heat dissipation apparatus may, in some examples, form the base 110. Thus, in one example, the first surface and the second surface(s) may form part of the heat dissipation apparatus. The heat dissipation apparatus (e.g., a heat sink with fins) may be configured to dissipate heat from the heat source 120. For example, the heat dissipation apparatus may conduct heat away from the heat source 120 and then the heat conducted into the heat dissipation apparatus may be dissipated by convection. The flow of the medium that the heat dissipation apparatus experiences may affect convection associated with dissipating heat from the heat dissipation apparatus and thus may control the heat dissipation performance of the configurable heat sink apparatus 100.
Configurable heat sink apparatus 100 may also include an accessory 140 that is removably attachable to a second surface. The accessory 140 may be configured to be positioned over an aperture(s) 130. For example, accessory 140 may completely cover aperture 130, may partially cover aperture 130, and so on. While a single aperture 130 and a single accessory 140 are illustrated, it is to be appreciated that configurable heat sink apparatus 100 may include one or more apertures 130 and one or more accessories 140. In different examples the accessories may be removably attached to the base 110 by, for example, screws, fasteners, clips, slot and tab systems, male/female systems, and the like.
As described above, the flow of a medium experienced by a heat dissipation apparatus associated with configurable heat sink apparatus 100 may affect the heat dissipation performance of apparatus 100. Thus, the accessory 140 may be configured to control, at least in part, the flow of a medium experienced by the heat dissipation apparatus. For example, the accessory 140 may be configured to control the volume, type, direction, and so on, of medium that flows into and/or out of the apparatus 100. By way of illustration, the accessory 140 may be a cover, an air moving apparatus, a fluid moving apparatus, and so on, that selectively blocks, provides, or influences the flow of the medium into and/or out of base 110. The cover, air moving apparatus, fluid moving apparatus, and so on, may be configured to control the flow of mediums including, but not limited to, a gas, air, a liquid, water, and a solution. Again, while a single accessory 140 is illustrated, one or more accessories may be removably attachable to base 110. The accessories may be enabled individually, in sets, and/or collectively by a user by, for example, opening and/or closing a cover associated with the accessory. Additionally, while a first accessory may initially be attached to base 110, a user may remove the first accessory and replace it with a second accessory. To facilitate adding, removing, and/or swapping accessories, configurable heat sink apparatus 100 may be packaged as a single part with both the base 110 and the accessories available to the user. This facilitates producing, warehousing, shipping, and so on, a single product that can be employed in various platforms with various heat sources that have various heat dissipation requirements.
By way of further illustration, configurable heat sink 100 may be employed in various applications where it may be desired to control the direction of air flow across a heat dissipation apparatus in base 110. Therefore, configurable heat sink 100 may be configured with several apertures and several covers 150. By selectively removing some covers and leaving other covers in place, an air flow path may be controlled. This may be desired, for example, when configurable heat sink 100 is employed in applications having relatively cooler air zones and relatively warmer air zones. To facilitate cooling, it may be desirable to input air from a relatively cooler air zone.
In one example, the apparatus (e.g., fan 510) may be configurable to take on the open, active state when a cover (not illustrated) associated with the apparatus is at least partially open. Thus, in one example, if a cover is removed, slid open, retracted, positioned to permit the flow of a medium through fan 510, and so on, then heat sink 500 may experience an increased air flow due to the action of fan 510. In this example, heat sink 500 may experience an impinging flow when the apparatus (e.g., fan 510) is configured in the open, active state.
In another example, the apparatus (e.g., fan 510) may be configurable to take on the closed, inactive state when a cover associated with the apparatus is closed. In this example, the heat sink 500 may experience a straight-through flow when the apparatus is configured in the closed, inactive state. The impinging flow described above may occur when fan 510 blows down onto a surface(s) of heat sink 500. The straight-through flow may occur when air enters through one opening of heat sink 500 and leaves through another opening. While a fan 510 is illustrated, it is to be appreciated that in some examples the apparatus may take other forms (e.g., fluid pump).
Heat sink 500 may experience various air flows or flows of other mediums. Three possible flows labeled F1, F2 and F3 are illustrated in
While heat sink 600 is illustrated with no accessories attached, and thus aperture 620 visible, the multi-directional flow heat sink assembly may include a flow component(s) that is configured to influence a flow of a medium experienced by the heat dissipation component 660. In one example, the flow component may be configured to produce flows including, but not limited to, an impinging-flow, and a straight-through flow. The flow component(s) may be removably attachable to the multi-directional flow heat sink assembly. The flow components may include, for example, a cover, and a flow generator like a fan, a pump, and so on.
Thus,
Example methods may be better appreciated with reference to the flow diagram of
In the flow diagram, blocks denote “processing blocks” that may be implemented with logic. The processing blocks may represent a method step and/or an apparatus element for performing the method step. A flow diagram does not depict syntax for any particular programming language, methodology, or style (e.g., procedural, object-oriented). Rather, a flow diagram illustrates functional information one skilled in the art may employ to develop logic to perform the illustrated processing.
Method 900 may also include, at 920, producing a heat sink assembly that is configured to provide heat dissipation for the heat source. The heat sink assembly may include, for example, a configurable heat sink and accessories that are removably attachable to the heat sink assembly. The heat sink assembly may be produced, for example, by an automated manufacturing process interacting with an automated picking system. In one example, method 900 may include determining a range of heat dissipation requirements for the heat source and then selecting the accessories based, at least in part, on the range of heat dissipation requirements for the heat source.
Method 900 may also include, at 930, providing the heat sink assembly as a single part. The heat sink assembly may be provided, for example, by an automated fulfillment system. In one example, providing 930 the heat sink assembly as a single part may include automatically packaging the heat sink and the accessories in a single package, automatically warehousing the heat sink and the accessories under a single picking number, and automatically inventorying the heat sink and the accessories under a single inventory number. A picking number may be, for example, a data value stored in a database associated with an automated warehousing system that facilitates physically locating and retrieving, via automated means, a part. An inventory number may be, for example, a data value stored in a database associated with an automated inventory system that facilitates tracking inventory properties like quantities on hand, and so on.
At 940 a determination may be made concerning whether to process another heat sink assembly. If the determination is no, then processing may conclude, otherwise processing may continue at 910.
While
In one example, methodologies are implemented as processor executable instructions and/or operations provided on a computer-readable medium. Thus, in one example, a computer-readable medium may store processor executable instructions operable to perform a method that includes identifying a heat source for which heat dissipation is desired and producing a heat sink assembly that is configured to provide heat dissipation for the heat source. The heat sink assembly may include a configurable heat sink and accessories that are removably attachable to the heat sink assembly. The method may also include providing the heat sink assembly as a single part. While the above method is described being provided on a computer-readable medium, it is to be appreciated that other example methods described herein can also be provided on a computer-readable medium.
Method 1000 may also include, at 1020, configuring the configurable heat sink assembly by manipulating an accessory. For example, a cover may be attached or removed, a fan may be attached or removed, a duct may be attached, removed, or oriented in a particular direction, and so on.
Method 1000 may also include, at 1030, contacting the heat source with the interface surface, and, at 1040, causing a first air flow in the area of the heat dissipation apparatus. The first air flow may be controlled, at least in part, by how the accessory was configured.
Over time, the heat dissipation environment in which a heat sink operated in accordance with method 1000 may change. Thus, method 1000 may also include, (not illustrated) reconfiguring a configurable heat sink assembly by manipulating an accessory. For example, where a first air flow was produced when a cover was in place over an aperture, a second air flow may be produced when the cover is removed and a fan is placed over the aperture. In one example, the second flow may replace and/or operate with the first air flow. Thus, method 1000 may also include, (not illustrated), causing a second air flow in the area of the heat dissipation apparatus.
While example systems, methods, and so on, have been illustrated by describing examples, and while the examples have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention of the applicants to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the systems, methods, and so on, described herein. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention is not limited to the specific details, the representative apparatus, and illustrative examples shown and described. Thus, this application is intended to embrace alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, the preceding description is not meant to limit the scope of the invention. Rather, the scope of the invention is to be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
To the extent that the term “includes” or “including” is employed in the detailed description or the claims, it is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as that term is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “or” is employed in the detailed description or claims (e.g., A or B) it is intended to mean “A or B or both”. When the applicants intend to indicate “only A or B but not both” then the term “only A or B but not both” will be employed. Thus, use of the term “or” herein is the inclusive, and not the exclusive use. See, Bryan A. Garner, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 624 (2d. Ed. 1995).
