This application is a National Stage Entry of PCT/JP2019/049878 filed on Dec. 19, 2019, which claims priority from Japanese Patent Application 2018-242159 filed on Dec. 26, 2018, the contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety.
The present invention relates to a cooling device and a manufacturing method for the cooling device.
In recent years, a large amount of heat has come to be generated in semiconductors and electronic devices with advanced high performance and high miniaturization. In order to prevent failure of these devices and the like and to perform stable operation, it is necessary to quickly cool the large amount of heat. As a means for cooling an electronic component having such a high heat generation density, a cooling device (hereinafter referred to as a “phase change cooling device”) that transports, diffuses, and cools heat by using a phase change of a refrigerant is being considered.
A general phase change cooling device comprises a heat receiving unit that receives heat of a heating element composed of an electronic component such as a CPU, a heat radiating unit that radiates heat transported by utilizing a phase change of a refrigerant, and a piping that connects the heat receiving unit and the heat radiating unit. A liquid phase refrigerant is supplied from a liquid pipe to the heat receiving unit, and the liquid phase refrigerant boils by heat received from the heating element and thereby becomes a gas phase refrigerant. At this time, heat equivalent to evaporation heat is absorbed, and the heat receiving unit is cooled. The generated gas phase refrigerant is discharged from a gas phase pipe, moves to the heat radiating unit, and releases heat in the heat radiating unit and liquefies. The liquefied liquid phase refrigerant returns to the liquid pipe and is supplied to the heat receiving unit again. By such an operation, in the phase change cooling device, the refrigerant can be circulated without using a pump, and the heat receiving unit can be cooled.
An example of the phase change cooling device as described above is disclosed in, for example, PTL 1. The cooling device in PTL 1 comprises: an evaporator provided with a heat receiving unit in close contact with an electronic component or the like. The cooling device also comprises a liquid pipe that supplies a working liquid (refrigerant) to the evaporator; a vapor pipe that discharges refrigerant vapor generated in the evaporator. The cooling device also comprises a plate-like porous wick that separates a space inside the evaporator into a side of the liquid pipe and a side of the vapor pipe. The refrigerant flowing from the liquid pipe into the evaporator moves in a thickness direction of the wick due to capillary phenomenon, and evaporates by heat received from an electronic component or the like. At this time, heat equivalent to evaporation heat is absorbed, and the heat receiving unit is cooled. In this cooling device, the evaporator is made thinner by forming the wick into a plate shape.
[Patent Literature]
[PTL 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-233625
[Technical Problem]
However, in the general cooling device as in PTL 1, when the cooling device tilts, there is a problem that the heat receiving unit cannot be uniformly cooled. When the cooling device tilts, the liquid phase refrigerant is biased toward a low side and is not supplied to a high side. As a result, cooling is not sufficiently performed on the high side of the tilted cooling device, and thus cooling efficiency of the cooling device is lowered.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device capable of reducing a decrease in cooling efficiency due to atilt of the cooling device.
[Solution to Problem]
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the cooling device comprises: a heat receiving unit having a space therein; a liquid phase piping that supplies a liquid phase refrigerant to the heat receiving unit; a gas phase piping that discharges a gas phase refrigerant from the heat receiving unit; and a spacer disposed inside the heat receiving unit. The spacer has a higher specific gravity than the liquid phase refrigerant. The spacer has a shape that can move along a bottom surface of the heat receiver. When the heat receiving unit tilts, the spacer moves to a low side of the heat receiver. Herein, since the spacer has a higher specific gravity than the liquid phase refrigerant 2, the spacer collects on the bottom surface on the low side of the heat receiver. The liquid phase refrigerant spreads to a high side of the heat receiver by an amount equivalent to a volume removed by the spacer, and thus cooling with high uniformity can be performed.
[Advantageous Effects of Invention]
An advantageous effect of the present invention is that it is possible to provide a cooling device capable of reducing a decrease in cooling efficiency due to a tilt of the cooling device.
Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings, example embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. However, although technically desirable limitation is made to the example embodiments to be described below for achieving the present invention, the scope of the invention is not limited to the following. Note that similar components in the drawings are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a description thereof may be omitted.
When the heat receiving unit 1 receives heat, the liquid phase refrigerant 2 boils in a boiling portion la being a bottom surface of the inside of the heat receiving unit, and is discharged from the gas phase piping 4. At this time, evaporation heat of the liquid phase refrigerant 2 is consumed, and thus the heat receiving unit 1 is cooled.
As described above, according to the present example embodiment, it is possible to reduce a decrease in cooling efficiency when the cooling device is tilted.
Next, an operation of cooling and circulation of the refrigerant will be described. The liquid phase refrigerant 200 is supplied from the liquid phase piping 300 to the heat receiving unit 100 by utilizing an action of gravity.
In a boiling portion 100a being a lower surface of the heat receiving unit 100, the liquid phase refrigerant 200 inside boils by heat conducted from the heating element 2000, which changes the phase of the liquid-phase refrigerant 200 to the phase of the gas phase refrigerant 210. When the liquid phase refrigerant 200 is phase-changed to the gas phase refrigerant 210, heat is absorbed in the refrigerant as latent heat. Since a density of the gas phase refrigerant 210 is smaller than that of the liquid phase refrigerant 200, the gas phase refrigerant 210 rises by buoyancy thereof, and passes through the gas phase piping 400 and moves to the heat radiating unit 600 as indicated by an arrow A. In order to move the gas phase refrigerant 210 to the heat radiating unit 600 by utilizing buoyancy, the heat radiating unit 600 needs to be vertically above the heat receiving unit 100.
The heat radiating unit 600 utilizes a cooler such as a cooling fan 610 and promotes heat radiation from the heat radiating unit 600 into the air. The gas phase refrigerant 210 that moves to the heat radiating unit 600 radiates heat thereof into the air by, for example, cooling air sent from the cooling fan 610, and changes the phase to the liquid phase refrigerant 200. Since a density of the liquid phase refrigerant 200 is higher than that of the gas phase refrigerant 210, the liquid phase refrigerant 200 drops by gravity, passes through the liquid phase piping 300, and is refluxed to the heat receiving unit 100 as indicated by an arrow B. The refluxed liquid phase refrigerant 200 receives heat from the heating element 2000 and is utilized again for circulation of the refrigerant.
In this manner, the cooling device 1000 can circulate the liquid phase refrigerant 200 and the gas phase refrigerant 210 without using a pump by utilizing the phase change of the refrigerant. In addition, an amount of heat that can be transported by phase change per unit mass is several hundred times larger than that of a system in which heat is transported by an increase in temperature of a refrigerant, such as water cooling, and is therefore suitable for heat transport and cooling with a high amount of heat generation.
Next, a configuration of the heat receiving unit 100 according to the present example embodiment will be described.
Note that this is an example of the shapes of the heat receiving unit 100 and the protrusion 110, and is not limited thereto. The shapes of the heat receiving unit 100 and the protrusion 110 may be any shape as long as the shape does not hinder movement of the spacer 500 when the tilt changes.
The liquid phase refrigerant 200 and the spacer 500 are held inside the heat receiving unit 100. The specific gravity of the spacer 500 is sufficiently higher than that of the liquid phase refrigerant 200, and the spacer does not float on the liquid phase refrigerant 200. The spacer 500 has a spherical shape, and a cross-sectional area becomes smaller as a distance from the center of the spacer 500 increases. Therefore, an amount of the liquid phase refrigerant 200 being present varies depending on its height. When the liquid phase refrigerant 200 is present only at a position lower than the center of the spacer 500, the amount of the liquid phase refrigerant 200 being present is the minimum at the liquid surface, and is the maximum at a position farthest from the center, i.e., at the boiling portion 100a. Since the liquid phase refrigerant 200 is phase-changed to the gas phase refrigerant 210 in the boiling portion 100a, a large amount of refrigerant is present in the boiling portion 100a, whereby the refrigerant can be efficiently utilized.
The number of the spacers 500 is desirably such that an area occupied by the spacers 500 falls within a range of ¼ to ½ of an area of the bottom surface of the heat receiving unit 100 when viewed from above the heat receiving unit 100. It is desirable that a size of the spacer 500 is such that about ⅓ of the volume of the spacer 500 is immersed in the liquid phase refrigerant 200 when the heat receiving unit 100 is in the horizontal state. This is because a difference in volume in which the spacer 500 is immersed in the liquid phase refrigerant 200 is to be increased between a time of being in the horizontal state illustrated in
Herein, for comparison, a case where the spacer 500 is not provided will be described.
Next, a case of being tilted in a direction in which a side of the liquid phase piping 300 becomes higher will be described.
Next, a description will be given of a rise of the liquid surface when the heat receiving unit 100 is tilted in a direction in which the side of the liquid phase piping 300 is lowered.
Next, the protrusion 110 will be described. In
As described above, according to the present example embodiment, even when the heat receiving unit of the cooling device is tilted, cooling can be uniformly performed.
As illustrated in
By the operation as described above, it is possible to perform phase change cooling with good uniformity over the entire surface of the boiling portion.
In the first to third example embodiments, description has been made by using an example in which a spacer has a spherical shape, but a shape other than a spherical shape may be used as long as the spacer can smoothly move along a boiling portion inside a heat receiving unit. For example, a spacer 501 may have a cylindrical shape as illustrated in
As described above, according to the present example embodiment, similarly to the second and third example embodiments, it is possible to configure a spacer which can be utilized for performing uniform cooling of the heat receiving unit.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exmple embodiments thereof, the invention is not limited to these embodiments. It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the claims.
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese patent application No. 2018-242159, filed on Dec. 26, 2018, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2018-242159 | Dec 2018 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2019/049878 | 12/19/2019 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2020/137822 | 7/2/2020 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
20090084525 | Satou | Apr 2009 | A1 |
20110214840 | Sakamoto | Sep 2011 | A1 |
20120180993 | Yoshikawa et al. | Jul 2012 | A1 |
20150241096 | Matsunaga | Aug 2015 | A1 |
20190186843 | Takeuchi | Jun 2019 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2005321152 | Nov 2005 | JP |
2005321152 | Nov 2005 | JP |
2009088125 | Apr 2009 | JP |
2012233625 | Nov 2012 | JP |
2018115858 | Jul 2018 | JP |
101305437 | Sep 2013 | KR |
2010058520 | May 2010 | WO |
2011040129 | Apr 2011 | WO |
2018047529 | Mar 2018 | WO |
Entry |
---|
International Search Report of PCT Application No. PCT/JP2019/049878 dated Mar. 10, 2020. |
English translation of Written opinion for PCT Application No. PCT/JP2019/049878 dated Mar. 10, 2020. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20220057149 A1 | Feb 2022 | US |