Patent Application
20090165997
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to heat sinks, and more particularly to a heat sink for dissipation heat for dual-in-line package electronic components.
2. Description of Related Art
As technology continues to advance, it is inevitable that electronic components such as integrated circuits (ICs) will incorporate even larger numbers of transistors and other such dual-in-line electronic components in their construction, and accordingly, these ICs will have even higher level of heat emission.
In order to reduce the high temperature resulting from operations of the electronic components, heat sinks are commonly used. Conventional heat sinks generally comprise a base and a plurality of fins extending upwardly from the base. The heat sink is attached to one side of the electronic component by a clip. The contact between the heat sink and the electronic component is not perfect, as the heat sink is only contacted with one side of the electronic component. Thus, the heat dissipation problem in the dual-in-line package electronic components has become an obstacle affecting further development in the art and has to be addressed.
For the foregoing reasons, therefore, it is desired to devise a heat sink which can overcome the above-mentioned problems.
The present invention relates to a heat sink. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the heat sink for dissipating heat from at least one dual-in-line package electronic component includes a first fin unit and second fin unit. The first fin unit includes a sidewall and a plurality of heat dissipation fins thermally connected with the sidewall. The second fin unit includes a sidewall facing towards the sidewall of the first fin unit and a plurality of heat dissipation fins thermally connected with the sidewall of the second fin unit. The sidewall of the second fin unit is abutting against the sidewall of the first fin unit. A receiving space is defined between the sidewall of the first fin unit and the sidewall of the second fin unit adapted for receiving a dual-in-line package electronic component therein.
Other advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to
Referring to
The fixing frame 22 includes a rectangular connecting wall 221 and two connecting pins 222 extending downwardly from a common lateral side of the connecting wall 221. The two connecting pins 222 are located at two opposite distal ends of the lateral side of the connecting wall 221 respectively. A rectangular groove 211 is defined in the bottom surface of the base 21 for receiving the connecting wall 221 of the fixing frame 20 therein correspondingly. Two clamping tabs 212 are formed on two opposite sides of the groove 211 of the base 21 respectively. The two clamping tabs 212 extend horizontally from the opposite sides of the groove 211 of the base 21 toward a central portion thereof. A bottom surface of each of the clamping tabs 212 is coplanar with the bottom surface of the base 21. The clamping tabs 212 hold the connecting wall 221 of the fixing frame 22 in the groove 211 of the base 21, thus firmly fixing the fixing frame 22 to the first fin unit 20.
The sidewall 24 is located at a right lateral side of the first fin unit 20 and faces the second fin unit 30. The sidewall 24 extends upwardly and perpendicularly from a lateral side of the top surface of the base 21. The heat dissipation wall 25 is thermally connected to a middle of the sidewall 24 whereby the heat dissipation fins 23 are thermally connected to the sidewall 24. The sidewall 24 has a size substantially the same as the heat dissipation fins 23, while a thickness of the sidewall 24 is larger than that of each heat dissipation fins 23. A receiving recess 2312 is formed on an outer side surface of the sidewall 24 of the first fin unit 20. The receiving recess 2312 faces towards the second fin unit 30. An electronic component 50 which generates redundant heat is received in the receiving recess 2312 whereby the heat generated by the electronic component 50 is transferred to the heat sink for dissipation.
Referring to
Three circular fixing holes 2314 facing towards the second fin unit 30 are defined in the outer side surface of the sidewall 24 of the first fin unit 20. The three fixing holes 2314 are distributed around the receiving recess 2312, wherein one of the fixing holes 2314 is located at a top portion of the sidewall 24, and the other two fixing holes 2314 are located at a bottom portion of the sidewall 24, thereby the three fixing holes 2314 forming an equilateral triangle on the outer side surface of the sidewall 24 of the first fin unit 20.
The third fin unit 40 has substantially the same configuration as the first fin unit 20. More specifically, the third fin unit 40 includes a base 41, a fixing frame 42, a plurality of heat dissipation fins 43, a sidewall 44 and a heat dissipation wall 45. The fixing frame 42 includes a rectangular connecting wall 421 and two connecting pins 422 extending downwardly and perpendicularly from two ends of a common lateral side of the connecting wall 421. The base 41 defines a rectangular groove 411 corresponding to the connecting wall 421 of the fixing frame 42 in a bottom surface thereof. Two clamping tabs 412 are formed on two opposite sides of the rectangular groove 411 of the base 41 respectively. The third fin unit 40 is disposed in a face-to-face manner towards the first fin unit 20. The sidewall 44 of the third fin unit 40 is located on a left lateral side of the third fin unit 40 and faces towards the second fin unit 30. A receiving recess 4312 is defined in an outer side surface of the sidewall 44 of the third fin unit 40. The receiving recess 4312 of the third fin unit 40 has a same configuration to the receiving recess 2312 of the first fin unit 20. Three cylindrical fixing poles 4313 are formed on an outer side surface of the sidewall 44 of the third fin unit 40. The fixing poles 4313 extend from the outer side surface of the sidewall 44 of the third fin unit 40 toward the second fin unit 30.
The second fin unit 30 includes a base 31, a plurality of stacked heat dissipation fins 33, two sidewalls 34a, 34b and a heat dissipation wall 35. The base 31, the heat dissipation fins 33 and the heat dissipation wall 35 of the second fin unit 30 respectively have the same configuration as the base 21, the heat dissipation fins 23 and the heat dissipation wall 25 of the first fin unit 20. The two sidewalls 34a, 34b of the second fin unit 30 are located at two opposite lateral sides, i.e., left and right lateral sides, of the second fin unit 30, wherein the right side sidewall 34b has a same configuration to the sidewall 24 of the first fin unit 20 and the left side sidewall 34a has a same configuration to the sidewall 44 of the third fin unit 40. A receiving recess 3312 is defined in an outer side surface of each of the sidewalls 34a, 34b of the second fin unit 30. The receiving recess 3312 has a same configuration to the receiving recess 2312 of the first fin unit 20. Three cylindrical fixing poles 3313 are formed on the outer surface of the sidewall 34a of the second fin unit 30, corresponding to the three fixing holes 2314 of the first fin unit 20. The three cylindrical fixing poles 3313 can be inserted into and be received in the three fixing holes 2314 of the first fin unit 20 correspondingly. Three circular fixing holes 3314 are defined in the outer surface of the sidewall 34b of the second fin unit 30 for receiving the three fixing poles 4313 of the third fin unit 40 correspondingly.
In assembly, the first fin unit 20, the second fin unit 30 and the third fin unit 40 are assembled side-by-side together to form the heat sink, and an electronic component 50 is sandwiched between very two neighboring fin units 20, 30, 40. In other words, the heat sink having the three fin units 20, 30, 40 can dissipate heat for two electronic components 50 simultaneously. One of the electronic components 50 is firstly received in the receiving recess 2312 of the first fin unit 20, and then the fixing poles 3313 of the second fin unit 30 are inserted into the fixing holes 2314 of the first fin unit 20 to connect the first and second fin units 20, 30 together. The sidewall 24 of the first fin unit 20 is brought into an intimate contact with the sidewall 34a of the second fin unit 30. Thus, the receiving recesses 2314, 3312 of the two neighboring sidewalls 24, 34a of the first and second fin units 20, 30 are connected together to cooperatively form a receiving space receiving the electronic component 50 therein. In the same way, the third fin unit 40 is connected to the second fin unit 30 by the fixing poles 4313 of the third fin unit 40 inserting into the fixing holes 3314 of the second fin unit 30. Thus, the other one of the electronic components 50 is received in a receiving space cooperatively formed by the receiving recesses 3312, 4312 of the two neighboring sidewalls 34b, 44. The connecting wall 221 of the fixing frame 22 is inserted into the groove 211 of the first fin unit 20, and the connecting wall 421 of the fixing frame 42 is inserted into the groove 411 of the third fin unit 40. Thus, the fixing frames 22, 42 are connected with the first and the third fin unit 20, 40 respectively. Therefore, the heat sink can be fixed to a printed circuit board to which the electronic components 50 are electrically connected by inserting the connecting pins 222, 422 of the fixing frames 22, 42 to corresponding holes defined in the printed circuit board.
As the electronic components 50 are both contained in an interior of the heat sink when the fin units 20, 30, 40 are assembled together, an outer surface of each of the electronic components 50 contacts the neighboring sidewalls 24, 34a, 34b, 44 of the fin units 20, 30, 40 of the heat sink completely, which enlarges the contacting surface area between the electronic components 50 and the heat sink. Therefore, heat generated by the electronic components 50 can be absorbed by the sidewalls 24, 34a, 34b, 44 of the heat sink and then quickly transferred to the heat dissipation walls 25, 35, 45 and the heat dissipation fins 23, 33, 43 for further dissipation. Preferably, a thermal interface material, for example, a thermal grease, may be applied to the outer surface of each of the electronic components 50 and an inner surface of each of the receiving recesses 2312, 3312, 4312 of the heat sink, so as to fill up an air clearance formed between the electronic components 50 and the heat sink, and to increase heat dissipation efficiency.
Alternatively, the number of the fin units 20, 30, 40 may be adjusted according to heat dissipation requirement for the electronic components 50. Referring to
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
