Patent Application
20150101784
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultra-thin plate type heat pipe and in particular to a heat pipe with an ultra-thin flat wick structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Since most current 3C electronic products indicate a trend towards a light, thin, short, and compact design, the heat pipes used therein for heat dissipation or heat conduction also need to be thinned down, which causes the creation of the ultra-thin plate type heat pipe (the thickness is below about 1.5 mm).
However, the thickness of the ultra-thin plate type heat pipe needs to be thinned, thus resulting in a thinner thickness of the wick structure therein, otherwise the steam channels with sufficient space cannot be formed in the heat pipe. During the manufacturing process, the excessively thin wick structure cannot be filled through the gap between the wall of the heat pipe and the mandrel. The reason is that a relatively small gap causes a greater resistance when the metal powder is filled and thus cannot be processed subsequently. Therefore, the powder wick structure in the previous ultra-thin plate type heat pipe is formed only in the local area in the heat pipe and not thinned. Consequently, the powder wick structure in the ultra-thin plate type heat pipe of the prior art cannot be easily filled into the cross section of the heat pipe completely, which cannot provide the adequate surfaces for evaporation and condensation and the truncated transfer surface. Also, this still does not have sufficient steam channels and solid internal support structures, resulting in easy collapse of the heat pipe and thus greater thermal contact resistance. Hence, the heat transfer efficiency cannot be improved further.
In view of this, the inventor pays special attention to research with the application of related theory and tries to overcome the above disadvantages. Finally, the inventor proposes the present invention which is a reasonable design and effectively overcomes the above disadvantages.
The main objective of the present invention is to provide a heat pipe with an ultra-thin flat wick structure, in which the thinned wick structure can be formed on the inner wall of the heat pipe such that the steam channels can be maintained to provide sufficient space for heat transfer by evaporation and condensation after the ultra-thin heat pipe is pressed and formed, to provide the maximal capillary surface area and truncated transfer surface, and to provide more solid internal support structures to make the heat pipe not easy to collapse and have lower thermal contact resistance, achieving the objective of providing an ultra-thin heat pipe.
To achieve the above objective, the present invention provides a heat pipe with an ultra-thin flat wick structure, comprising a hollow shell having a flat shape, and a wick structure disposed in the shell. The wick structure comprises a plurality of heat exchange zones and at least one liquid channel connected between the heat exchange zones. The heat exchange zones are divided into at least one evaporation portion and at least one condensation portion. Each of the heat exchange zones has a plane and a pressing surface opposite to the plane. The plane is attached to an inner wall of the shell. A plurality of elongated concave surfaces are spacedly arranged on the pressing surface such that a respective steam channel is formed in the shell via each of the concave surfaces and a respective elongated wick structure connection is formed between each concave surface and the plane. Cut-out zones are formed at two sides of the liquid channel between the heat exchange zones in the shell.
To make examiners understand the features and technical contents regarding the present invention, please refer to the following detailed description and attached figures. However, the attached figures are only used for reference and explanation, not to limit the present invention.
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Also, a respective elongated wick structure connection 203 is formed between each concave surface 202 and the plane 200 of the wick structure 2. Cut-out zones 102 are formed at two sides of the liquid channel 21 between the heat exchange zones 20 in the shell 1. The cut-out zones 102 can be used as low flow resistance zones which increase the flowing area for working fluid during vapor-liquid phase change. Furthermore, the thickness t1 of the wick structure 2 is below about 0.25 mm and the minimum thickness t2 of each elongated wick structure connection 203 ranges about from 0.02 mm to 0.04 mm.
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In summary, the present invention indeed achieves the expected objective and overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art. In addition, the present invention is useful, novel and non-obvious, which meets the requirements of patent application. Please examine the application carefully and grant it a patent for protecting the rights of the inventor.
The embodiments described above are only preferred ones and not to limit the scope of appending claims regarding the present invention. Therefore, all the modifications of equivalent technology and means which apply the specification and figures of the present invention are embraced by the scope of the present invention.
