Patent Grant
8020608
Fins employed in heat sinks that are configured to experience a fan-assisted air flow have typically been manufactured together with and as part of an assembly that includes a base for the heat sink. For example, fins employed in a two pass radial fin heat sink have typically been machined from the same blank or poured into the same mold as the base. By way of illustration, a single extruded solid round bar of aluminum may be machined with a lathe, a circular slitting saw, and the like, to form the fins and the base as an integral unit. The fins and base for the heat sink device may be configured to house a fan that may be configured to produce a dual air flow. Producing such fins as part of a single piece base and fin assembly may produce certain limitations in these fins.
An example conventional heat sink cooling device configured to experience a fan-assisted dual air flow is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,116, issued Jul. 28, 1998. In one example, the '116 patent describes a heat sink having a housing formed from cooling vanes and a base machined from a single piece of material. The cooling vanes are arranged so that air passes over them twice. The vanes are illustrated as being substantially uniform and substantially featureless. The vanes and base are manufactured into an integral two pass, radial fin 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.
A first flow 110-130 is produced by fan 140 drawing air into the heat sink device 100 and expelling the air at 130. While two locations 110 and two locations 130 are illustrated, it is to be appreciated that locations 110 generally refer to the open top of device 100 and locations 130 generally refer to openings between fins 150. As the air is expelled at 130, it passes through channels between fins 150. Thus, heat conducted from a heat source into the fins 150 may be dissipated by convection into air flow 110-130. A second flow 120-130 is produced as a result of flow 110-130 in the heat sink device 100. Again, while two locations 120 are illustrated, it is to be appreciated that locations 120 generally refer to openings between fins 150. Flow 110-130 may produce a Bernoulli effect whereby a relatively lower pressure area is produced inside heat sink device 100. Thus, flow 120-130 may result as air from the relatively higher pressure area outside heat sink device 100 is drawn into the relatively lower pressure area inside the heat sink device 100. Air in flow 120-130 also passes through channels between fins 150, which facilitates additional convective cooling and thus producing the second air flow in a dual air flow heat sink.
Conventionally, heat sink device 100 may have been machined from a solid piece of a suitable thermally conductive and machinable material. For example, an extruded bar of aluminum may have been machined using a lathe, a circular slitting saw, and the like. When the fins and base of a heat sink are manufactured from this single solid piece of material, the shape of a fin may be limited to, for example, a substantially flat shape as determined by the device cutting the channel. Thus, various properties (e.g., volume, direction) of the air flows 110-130 and 120-130 may be determined and/or limited by the shape of the fins. Unlike conventional devices, example fins and bases described herein may be fabricated separately, which provides for greater flexibility in fin design. Thus, example fins described herein may be manufactured with an integral stator blade that facilitates controlling air flow properties. For example, configuring a fin 150 with an integral stator blade may facilitate fan 140 pushing air between fins 150 with greater efficiency than in systems where fins 150 do not include an integral stator blade. The stator blade may be, for example, a stationary blade formed integrally into a fin.
Fin 300 may be manufactured independently from a base to which it may be attached later. Thus, fin 300 may be configured with a feature like stator blade 330. Additionally, fin 300 may be manufactured from a different thermally conductive material than a base to which it may be attached. In one example, fin 300 may be employed in a radial fin heat sink device configured to experience a fan-assisted dual air flow.
Fin 300 may include, for example, a lower portion 310, an upper portion 320, and an integral stator blade 330. Fin 300 may be positioned so that blades of a fan being used to produce an air flow in a heat sink will pass above portion 310 and stator blade 330 as the fan blades rotate in a housing formed from fin 300 and a base. Stator blade 330 facilitates directing an air flow produced by a fan blade in a desired direction. Additionally, stator blade 330 may facilitate increasing the surface area of fin 300 and thus facilitate dissipating heat from fin 300.
While
Example methods may be better appreciated with reference to the flow diagrams of
Method 500 may also include, at 520, contacting the interface surface with the heat source, and, at 530, causing the fan to move air in the area of the heat sink and the fins configured with stator blades. An air flow(s) produced by the fan in the heat sink device will be controlled, at least in part, by properties like the size, shape, and orientation of the stator blades with respect to the fan blades.
Stator blade 710 has an orientation axis GG. Arrow D1 is illustrated being parallel to orientation axis GG. Arrow D3 is also illustrated being parallel to orientation axis GG. In one example, axis GG is substantially perpendicular to axis FF and thus substantially parallel to the direction indicated by arrow D2. Thus arrows D1 and D2 are substantially parallel and therefore, an angle β between arrows D1 and D2 is substantially zero. Thus, arrow D3 is substantially perpendicular to arrow D4 and an angle θ between arrows D3 and D4 is substantially ninety degrees.
In one example, stator blade 710 is oriented at an angle with respect to fan blade 700 that makes arrows D1 and D2 exactly parallel and thus angle β is exactly zero and angle θ is exactly ninety degrees. In another example, stator blade 710 may be oriented at an angle with respect to fan blade 700 that makes arrows D1 and D2 be within ten degrees of parallel and thus angle β may have a magnitude of up to ten degrees and angle θ may take values from eighty degrees to one hundred degrees. It will be appreciated that the stator blade 710 can be at a selected angle that is determined to be optimum. The angle can be determined, for example, using analytical and/or empirical methods.
The orientation of stator blade 710 with respect to fan blade 700 may be chosen to affect air flow properties like direction and so on. Controlling the direction of an air flow may influence, for example, the ability to interact with a pressure drop inside an assembly configured to experience a fan-assisted air flow.
At 1220, a fin may be manufactured using techniques including, but not limited to, milling, pressing, forging, machining, and the like. The fin may have, for example, an integral stator blade. The fin may be manufactured, for example, from materials like copper, aluminum, and the like. It is to be appreciated that the fin may be manufactured from the same material as the base or from a material different from the base. While a single fin is described, it is to be appreciated that a heat sink device may be configured with a number of fins and thus a number of fins may be manufactured. It is to be appreciated that in various examples, the actions performed at 1210 and 1220 may be performed in different locations, at different times, in different orders, and/or substantially in parallel.
At 1230, the base and the fin(s) may be assembled into a housing.
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).
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