This application claims the benefit and priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 201010504597.5, filed Sep. 30, 2010 and Chinese Patent Application No. 201010594151.6, filed Dec. 18, 2010. The entire disclosure of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference.
The present disclosure relates to heat dissipation modules, and more particularly to a high-power heat dissipation module for LEDs, CPUs, GPUs, chipsets, power semiconductors or circuit boards with electronic components.
In the electronic industry, heat dissipation modules are used to cool electronic components using heat conduction. The heat dissipation modules include a fin structure, which is in contact with the electronic components for absorbing heat. The heat is transferred to the fins and then dissipated into the surrounding air by the fins. The total contact area of the fins to air significantly impacts heat dissipation efficiency of the heat dissipation module.
The basic type of heat dissipation construction described above can handle the heat dissipation of the electronic components with a power less than 100 W. For the electronic components with higher power, the heat dissipation module requires extra components, such as a fan, to accelerate the speed of air flow. Alternately other heat conduction techniques are used. However, for some high-power electronic components, such as LEDs, the lifespan of the fan is much shorter than the electronic components. Therefore, in some applications the fans fail or are damaged before the electronic components. Therefore, a reasonable design of the heat dissipation module based on the basic construction to achieve a balance of the service life between the electronic component and the heat dissipation module is desired.
In order to solve the problem of insufficient heat dissipation efficiency of the fanless heat dissipation module, the present disclosure discloses a highly efficient heat dissipation module.
A heat dissipation module for cooling an electronic component includes a heat exchange element having a sealed cavity therein, in which a powder sintered portion and a gas-liquid two-phase changing working fluid are provided. The heat exchange element further includes a flat section for mounting the electronic component, and a fixing structure disposed on the back of the flat section. A heat sink includes a central hole portion therein and a heat dissipation structure around the central hole potion. The central hole portion receives and secures the fixing structure of the heat exchange element. The heat sink allows the heat generated by the electronic component to be transferred to the heat sink and then dissipated into the surrounding air.
The working fluid in the heat exchange element is gas-liquid two-phase changeable. While the temperature difference between the electronic component and the edge of the heat sink is large, the heat exchange element is able to dissipate the heat generated by the heat source to the heat sink immediately, taking heat away through the heat sink from inside to outside.
In other features, the heat dissipation structure includes a plurality of fins around the central hole portion, to form a finned heat sink. The fins are arranged around the central hole portion in a ring shape, making the heat sink have an overall circular tube shape for facilitating airflow.
In other features, the fins are flat-plate-shaped for providing a larger air contact area. Furthermore, the fins are branched on the ends thereof. A connecting wall is provided between the two adjacent fins. The connecting wall with the two adjacent fins forms a through hole for creating airflow through chimney effects by heat.
In other features, the fins are arc-shaped, thereby adding extra airflow along the bending direction of the fins while air flows. As an improvement to the above embodiment, the heat sink may be a finless heat sink, comprising at least one air channel disposed around the central hole portion, capable of creating air flow in the air channel through the chimney effect generated by the heat transferred from the electronic component.
Furthermore, a plurality of outward divergent blades are provided around the central hole portion. Every two adjacent blades are connected by an outer wall, which forms an air channel with the outer portion of the central hole portion. The blades are used as a heat conduction structure in contact with air. In addition, the blades are connected in order to form a tube-shaped outer heat dissipation structure around the central hole portion.
In other features, the outer wall is flat-plate-shaped. The outer structure of the heat sink has a polygon-tube shape with angularities consisting of a plurality of outer walls. The blades are connected to the polygon tube on the angularities.
In other features, the outer wall is flat-plate-shaped. The outer structure of the heat sink has a polygon-tube shape including a plurality of outer walls. The blades are connected to the polygon tube on the corners.
In other features, the out wall is arc-shaped. The out structure of the heat sink has circular-tube shape including a plurality of outer walls. The outer walls are connected to the inner side of the circular tube.
In other features, the heat exchange element is a vapor chamber having a flat section on the middle thereof and two press-formed inserting sections symmetrically disposed on the two ends of the flat sections as the fixing structure. Accordingly the heat sink has a couple of jacks as the central hole portion corresponding to the two inserting sections.
In other features, each inserting section of the vapor chamber has a circular-arc shape, together with the other to form a hollow-tube shape with two symmetrical gaps. Accordingly the jacks of the heat sink are arc-shaped holes matched with the two inserting sections, for better heat conductibility.
The vapor chamber further has transitional sections converging towards the axis thereof between the flat section and the inserting sections. A concave receiving chamber is provided on the end surface of the heat sink for receiving and positioning the transitional sections of the vapor chamber. The jacks are set inside the receiving chamber.
The vapor chamber has a supporting structure for shape supporting in the cavity thereof.
The jacks of the heat sink extend from the receiving chamber to the other end of the central hole portion, to provide the possibility of air flowing through the central hole portion. Accordingly, the flat section of the vapor chamber protrudes slightly from the end surface of the central hole portion of the heat sink, to preserve gaps between the sides of the flat section and the central hole portion for connecting the receiving chamber and to the jacks.
In other features, the heat exchange element may be a heat column, having a flat section on the end thereof. The cylinder part of the heat column is as the fixing structure. The central hole portion is a jack corresponding to the cylinder part of the heat column. Firmer fixation and greater heat conduction are thus achieved by the shape and heat conductivity of the heat column.
The heat column has a vacuumed cavity, of which half space is filled by the working fluid. In addition, a powder sintered portion is provided within the heat column.
The heat sink of the present disclosure has a one-piece-formed structure or a split structure.
In other features, the fixing structure and the central hole portion are welded together.
The electronic component in the present disclosure may be a LED, CPU, GPU, chipset, power semiconductor or circuit board with electronic components.
Relying on the great heat conductivity of the heat exchange element used, the present disclosure directly mounts the electronic component on the heat exchange element for quick heat conduction to the heat sink. The heat sink may adopt a finned structure or a finless channel structure. The finned structure could provide great heat dissipation effects by the heat exchange supported by air convection and radiation, while the finless structure realizes the quick heat exchange by the air flow in the air channels. Compared to the conventional heat dissipation modules, the heat dissipation module disclosed by the present disclosure could be directly applied to the electronic components with a power of 100 W or more, such as high-power LEDs, CPUs, GPUs, chipsets, power semiconductors or circuits with electronic components.
As shown by
The heat exchange element 1 is provided with a flat section 11 for mounting the electronic component 3, and a fixing structure 12 behind the flat section 11 for fixation. The heat exchange element 1 further has a sealed cavity 101, in which a working fluid is filled and a powder sintered portion 102 is attached to the inner wall thereof. As the working fluid within the heat exchange element 1 is gas-liquid two-phase changeable, it is vaporized at a hot surface to absorb heat, the resulting vapor is condensed at a cold surface to release the heat absorbed before, then the liquid is returned to the hot surface. The quick heat conduction is thus realized by this recirculation process.
The heat sink 2 has a central hole portion 21, for fixing the fixing structure 12 inserted so as to secure the entire heat exchange element 1, and as well to ensure that the end surface of the flat section 11 of the heat exchange element 1 fixed is slightly above the central hoe portion 21, whereby the flat section 11 is located on the end surface of the entire heat sink 2 for mounting the electronic component 3. Furthermore, a heat dissipation structure 22 is provided around the central hole portion 21, for heat exchange with the air surrounding.
In the present disclosure, both the heat exchange element 1 and heat sink 2 may have changes or modifications in practice, which will be elaborated in the following description of the embodiments.
As shown by
As shown in
In addition, in a preferred embodiment, the vapor chamber is embedded into the heat sink 2, to maximize the heat conductivity therein, thus a preferred embodiment for the present disclosure could be: between the flat section 11 and the two inserting sections 12 of the vapor chamber, two transitional section 13 convergent towards the axis of the heat exchange element 1 is provided to allow a larger diameter for the flat section 11 than the fixing structure 12. Furthermore for the convenience in pressing, the two transitional sections 13 could be designed into a gradually shrinking formation, namely, the portion of each transitional section close to the flat section 11 is wider than the portion close to the inserting section, and thus this formation could constitute a positioning structure for the heat sink 2. Correspondingly, as shown in the drawings, the heat sink 2 has a receiving chamber 210 on the end thereof close to the central hole portion 21, the receiving chamber 210 is matched with the combined shape of the two transitional sections in width, and the jacks of the central hole portion 21 are set on the bottom of the receiving chamber 210, thus in assembling the vapor chamber, the flat section 11 and two transitional sections 13 are contained by the receiving chamber 210, the inserting sections 12 are inserted into and fixed by the jacks, and the vapor chamber is positioned by the receiving chamber 201 as well.
In practice, an alternative embodiment could be: the jacks may be through holes extending from the bottom of the receiving chamber 210 of a finless heat sink 2 to the other end thereof, thereby forming though holes in the finless heat sink 2, by which the air surrounding could flow across the heat sink 2 for better heat dissipation effects. In addition, the flat section 11 slightly protrudes from the central hole portion 21, to provide gaps on the opposite sides of the flat section 11 for connecting the receiving chamber 210 and the jacks, for cabling as well as allowing air to pass through without barriers.
In this embodiment, the heat sink 2 is finned, wherein the heat dissipation structure 22 is a plurality of fins 221 distributed around the central hole portion 21. In detail, the fins 221 are arranged in a ring shape around the central hole portion 21, making the entire heat sink 2 tube-shaped, thus the outer finned heat dissipation structure 21 is in direct contact with air, dissipating heat through radiation. In the embodiment shown by
Alternatively, as shown in
In the third embodiment shown in
In the above embodiments, the heat sinks 2 involved all have a one-piece-formed metal structure. Of course, they could also have a split structure, assembled by several separated components, and made of for example aluminum, or other high conductivity materials.
The electronic component 3 mentioned in the present disclosure may be LEDs, CPUs, GPUs (Graphic Processing Units), chipsets, power semiconductors or circuit boards with electronic components, which can be directly attached to the flat section 11, and fixed by a surface-mount manner. As shown by
Of course, besides the finned configuration described above, the heat sink 2 in the present disclosure may have a finless configuration instead.
As shown in
The finless heat sink 2 in this embodiment has a structure of air channel, the air channels 224 comprise the blades 225 disposed on the outer wall of the central hole portion 21, wherein each two adjacent blades 225 are connected on the outer ends thereof to form a closed formation, and in cooperation with the outer wall of the central hole portion 21, to form an air channel 224, thus, around the central hole portion 21, a plurality of blades 225 form a tube-like-shape, the air channels 224 are distributed evenly along the circumferential direction of the central hole portion 21, and all air channel 224 have a same direction to the axis of the central hole portion 21. In detail, on the central hole portion 21, an outer tube-like structure is formed by the outer walls 226 connecting the outer ends of the blades 225, in other words, it is formed by the blades 225 and the central hole portion 21.
Several preferred embodiments of the air channel 224 are described as follows:
In the embodiment shown in
In the embodiment shown in
In the embodiment shown in
In the aforementioned embodiments, the heat sink 2 involved all has a one-piece-formed metal structure, of course, the heat sink 2 could also have a split structure, assembled by several separated components, of which materials could be any metal materials with high conductivity, such as aluminum.
In the aforementioned embodiments, the heat exchange element 1 may be a vapor chamber, of which middle is processed into the flat section 11, and the two ends of the vapor chamber are processed into the inserting sections perpendicular to the flat section 11 by pressing, which are the fixing structure 12.
In the middle of the finless heat sink 2, jacks are provided as the central hole portion 21, for receiving the fixing structure 12. As shown by
For the finless heat sink 2, preferably, the vapor chamber is embedded into the heat sink 2 for better heat conduction, transitional sections 13 are provided between the flat section 11 and the inserting sections 12 disposed respectively on the two ends of the flat section 13, the transitional sections 13 converge towards the axis thereof for smoothly connecting the flat section 11 and the inserting sections 12, the transitional sections 13 have wider portions close to the flat section 11, the narrower portions near the inserting sections 12 could be used as a positioning structure. Accordingly, as shown by
The combination of the finless heat sink and the vapor chamber is shown by
Besides the vapor chamber described in above embodiments, a heat column could be used as the heat exchange element 1 in the present disclosure. The heat-column-type heat exchange element 1 is cylinder-shaped, one end surface of the cylinder is as the flat section 11, and the cylinder part is as the fixing structure 12, as shown in
This embodiment is more convenient for assembly compared to others, as shown by
The experiment verifies that adopting the technology disclosed by the present disclosure is able to reduce the working temperature by 10 degree and more for the electronic components; the heat dissipation performance of the heat dissipation module disclosed by the present disclosure is thus demonstrated.
Of course, for some electronic components, the present disclosure can still be used with fans or other cooling instruments, i.e., mounting a fan or other cooling instruments on the other end of the heat sink 2 provided by the present disclosure (not shown in accompanying drawings), to dramatically enhance the heat dissipation efficiency.
The present disclosure is an improvement to the structure of the conventional heat dissipation modules, cooperated with a vapor chamber having a specified shape, the present disclosure also adopts vapor chamber to secure the electronic component and transfer heat. Compared to the conventional heat dissipation modules, the present disclosure could handle the heat dissipation task for the electronic components with a power of more than 100 Watts. The performance of the heat dissipation module provided by the present disclosure could be further improved if used in cooperation with fans.
While the disclosure has been described in terms of what are presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure need not be limited to the disclosed embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2010 1 0504597 | Sep 2010 | CN | national |
2010 1 0594151 | Dec 2010 | CN | national |
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