Patent Application
20060209512
This Nonprovisional application claims priority under 35U.S.C.ยง119(a) on Patent Application No. 2005-78118 filed in Japan on Mar. 17, 2005, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a heat receiving member for receiving heat from a heat generating member such as an electronic component mounted in an electronic equipment by a coolant flowing in a coolant passage. The invention also relates to a heat receiving device including a heat generating member and a heat receiving member, and an electronic equipment in which a heat generating member is mounted on a printed circuit board.
An electronic equipment such as a desktop computer, a notebook type computer or mobile communication device includes a plurality of electronic components such as a CPU device, a coil element or a capacitor mounted on a printed circuit board. Recently, as the processing speed, function and performance of such electronic equipment are enhanced, the amount of heat generated during the operation of the electronic components tends to increase. To maintain the stable operation of the electronic equipment, the heat generated from the electronic components need be quickly dissipated to the outside for enhancing the heat dissipation performance.
Generally, for this purpose, such electronic equipment is provided with an air-cooling-type cooling device for cooling the electronic components. Such a cooling device includes a heat sink for absorbing heat from the electronic components and dissipating the heat, and a cooling fan for supplying cooling wind to the heat sink. Since it is expected that the amount of heat generation in electronic equipment continues to increase as described above, improvement of such a cooling device is desired.
To enhance the cooling performance of such an air-cooling-type cooling device, measures are taken such as increasing the size of the heat sink or enhancing the performance of the cooling fan, for example. However, when a large heat sink is used, the size of electronic equipment for incorporating the heat sink is inevitably increased. On the other hand, to enhance the performance of the cooling fan, the size of the fan structure or the number of revolutions of the cooling fan need be increased. However, when such a measure is taken, an increase in the size of the electronic equipment or in the fan noise is inevitable. Particularly, for a notebook type computer, in addition to the cooling performance, the portability, i.e. the size and weight of the equipment and the silence, i.e. making little noise during the operation are also important requirements, and the above-described measures to enhance the cooling performance are not incompatible with such requirements.
To solve the above problems, a liquid-cooling-type cooling system has been proposed which utilizes, as the coolant, liquid whose specific heat is considerably higher than that of the air. (For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-237582, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-9956 (1995) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-276699 (1992), for example.)
In the cooling device of electronic equipment (notebook type computer) disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-237582, a heat receiving portion for coming into contact with a heat generating member (electronic component), a heat dissipation portion and a pump are connected to each other via a pipe, and a liquid coolant is circulated in the pipe to transfer the heat from the heat generating member to the heat dissipation portion. The structural parts except the pump are in the form of a bag made of a flexible material to reduce the thickness and weight of the device.
An object of the present invention, which is conceived under such circumstances, is to provide a heat receiving member which is capable of efficiently receiving heat from a heat generating member by bringing the heat generating member into direct contact with a coolant, to provide a heat receiving device including such a heat generating member and a heat receiving member, and to provide an electronic equipment including a printed circuit board on which a heat generating member is mounted.
A heat receiving member according to the present invention includes a coolant passage for flowing a coolant for receiving heat generated at a heat generating member. The heat receiving member is formed with an opening for fitting the heat generating member so that the heat generating member comes into contact with the coolant. In the heat receiving member of the present invention, the heat generating member comes into contact with the coolant in the coolant passage. Therefore, an obverse surface of the heat generating member comes into direct contact with the coolant. As a result, the heat transfer path between the heat generating member and the coolant becomes shorter, and hence, the heat resistance is reduced, so that the heat receiving efficiency is enhanced.
In the heat receiving member according to the present invention, the coolant comprises a liquid having an anti-corrosion property. Since a liquid having an anti-corrosion property is used as the coolant in the heat receiving member of the present invention, the heat generating member does not corrode even in direct contact with the coolant.
A heat receiving device according to the present invention comprises a heat generating member at which heat is generated, and a heat receiving member including a coolant passage for flowing a coolant for receiving heat from the heat generating member. The heat receiving member is formed with an opening, and the heat generating member is fitted in the opening to come into contact with the coolant. In the heat receiving device of the present invention, the heat generating member fitted in the opening of the heat receiving member comes into direct contact with the coolant. Therefore, the heat transfer path between the heat generating member and the coolant becomes shorter, and hence, the heat resistance is reduced, so that the heat receiving efficiency is enhanced.
In the heat receiving device according to the present invention, the heat generating member includes a main body and a terminal portion, and the main body of the heat generating member comes into contact with the coolant. In the heat receiving device of the present invention, since the main body of the heat generating member comes into contact with the coolant, problems such as electrical short-circuiting and deterioration of the property of the terminal portion do not occur.
An electronic equipment according to the present invention comprises a heat receiving member including a coolant passage for flowing a coolant for receiving heat generated at a heat generating member, and a printed circuit board on which the heat generating member is mounted. The heat receiving member is formed with an opening, and the heat generating member is fitted in the opening to come into contact with the coolant. In the electronic equipment of the present invention, the heat generating member such as an electronic component mounted on the printed circuit board is fitted into the opening of the heat receiving member to come into direct contact with the coolant. Therefore, the heat transfer path between the heat generating member and the coolant becomes shorter, and hence, the heat resistance is reduced, so that the heat receiving efficiency is enhanced.
The above and further objects and features of the invention will more fully be apparent from the following detailed description with accompanying drawings.
The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments. It is to be noted that the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments.
The coolant passage 2 communicates with a coolant passage 45 formed in a heat dissipation plate 44 attached to the second housing 42 as a heat dissipation portion. A pump 46 is provided at some midpoint of the coolant passage 2 so that the liquid coolant circulates within the coolant passage 2 and the coolant passage 45 by driving the pump 46. Further, in the first housing 41, a fan 47 is provided to supply cooling air between the second housing 42 and the heat dissipation plate 44.
The heat dissipation process will be described below. During the heat dissipation process, the heat dissipation plate 44 is kept open. The heat generated at the heat generating member 1 is transferred to the liquid coolant flowing through the coolant passage 2, and the coolant flows through the coolant passage 45 to dissipate the heat to the outside through the heat dissipation plate 44. During this process, the heat dissipation effect is promoted by supplying, from the fan 47, cooling air between the second housing 42 and the heat dissipation plate 44.
The structure of the heat receiving device 10 as the characteristic portion of the present invention will be described below in detail.
The heat generating member 1, which is an electronic component, includes a main body 1a and a terminal portion 1b and is supported by an adapter 12 fitted in the opening 11a of the flexible sheet 11. The adapter 12 is provided with a wiring 13 for connecting an electrode of the terminal portion 1b of the heat generating member 1 to an external terminal. The main body 1a of the heat generating member 1 is brought into direct contact with the coolant 3 in the coolant passage 2, whereas the terminal portion 1b is not brought into contact with the coolant 3. Part of the flexible sheet 11 is embedded into the adapter 12 for providing high airtightness, so that the coolant 3 in the coolant passage 2 does not leak to the outside.
The main body 1a of the heat generating member 1 comes into direct contact with the coolant 3 flowing in the coolant passage 2. Therefore, unlike the prior art structure (
Since the heat generating member 1 which is an electronic component comes into direct contact with the coolant 3, there may be a concern that the property of the heat generating member 1 may be deteriorated. However, since an anti-corrosion coolant such as propylene glycol-based aqueous solution is used, the heat generating member 1 is not corroded by the coolant 3, so that deterioration of the property does not occur. Further, since the terminal portion 1b of the heat generating member 1 does not come into contact with the coolant 3, the property of the terminal portion 1b is not deteriorated.
In some kind of heat generating member 1, a metal pad may be provided as exposed at an obverse surface which comes into contact with the coolant 3. In the case of such a heat generating member 1, it is preferable to cover the metal pad with resin before the heat generating member 1 is brought into contact with the coolant 3.
The obverse surface of the main body 1a of the heat generating member 1 comes into direct contact with the anti-corrosion coolant 3 flowing in the coolant passage 2. Therefore, similarly to the first embodiment, the heat resistance can be reduced and the heat receiving efficiency can be considerably enhanced without deteriorating the property of the terminal portion 1b of the heating generating element 1.
In the above-described examples, propylene glycol-based aqueous solution is used as the coolant to flow in the coolant passage 2. However, other kinds of coolant, such as an acetic acid-based coolant, for example, may be used as long as it has an anti-corrosion property.
As described above, in the present invention, the heat generating member is fitted into the opening of the heat receiving member including the coolant passage so that the heat generating member comes into direct contact with the coolant. Therefore, the heat transfer path between the heat generating member and the coolant can be shortened to reduce the heat resistance, so that the heat receiving efficiency can be enhanced.
Further, in the present invention, a liquid having an anti-corrosion property is used as the coolant. Therefore, the heat generating member does not corrode even when it is brought into direct contact with the coolant. In this way, adverse effect by the coolant on the heat generating member can be prevented.
Moreover, in the present invention, the main body of the heat generating member is brought into contact with the coolant. Therefore, the direct contact of the heat generating member with the coolant does not cause problems such as electrical short-circuiting or deterioration of the property of the terminal portion.
As this invention may be embodied in several forms without departing from the spirit of essential characteristics thereof, the present embodiment is therefore illustrative and not restrictive, since the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the description preceding them, and all changes that fall within metes and bounds of the claims, or equivalence of such metes and bounds thereof are therefore intended to be embraced by the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-078118 | Mar 2005 | JP | national |
