This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-117614 filed on Jun. 6, 2014, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The embodiments discussed herein are related to a liquid-cooled jacket and an electronic device.
Heating values of electronic components mounted in electronic devices such as computers are increased as the speed and functionality of the electronic components are highly increased.
Related technologies are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H08-227953, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-54351, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-194038, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H08-241943, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-6811.
According to one aspect of the embodiments, a liquid-cooled jacket, includes: a cooling chamber including a first inner surface that extends along a to-be-cooled surface of an exothermic component; a heat transfer portion arranged in the cooling chamber and configured to transfer heat from the first inner surface to a second inner surface of the cooling chamber formed to oppose the first inner surface; an inflow path for a refrigerant including one end having an opening at a central portion of the second inner surface; a plurality of outflow holes for the refrigerant arranged in the second inner surface; and an outflow path, formed at a back side of an edge of the second inner surface, through which the refrigerant from the respective outflow holes circulates.
The object and advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.
The temperature of refrigerant that passes through a flow path formed along the to-be-cooled surface of an exothermic component, is slowly increased as the refrigerant flows from an upstream side toward a downstream side of the flow path. For this reason, cooling performance is relatively lower at the downstream side of the flow path through which the refrigerant passes than at the upstream side of the flow path.
A plurality of inflow paths is formed toward the to-be-cooled surface of the exothermic component, and a plurality of outflow paths is formed to oppose an inflow direction of the inflow path, such that the surface to-be-cooled may be uniformly cooled. A heat transfer area in the flow path with which the refrigerant is in contact may be enlarged as the inflow paths and the outflow paths formed to oppose the to-be-cooled surface are miniaturized. As the inflow path and the outflow path are miniaturized, a pressure loss is increased, and as a result, a flow rate of refrigerant may be decreased.
Even though the flow path formed to oppose the to-be-cooled surface of the exothermic component is miniaturized, a liquid-cooled jacket and an electronic device that reduce a pressure loss may be provided.
The liquid-cooled jacket 1 has a refrigerant inlet 2 into which the refrigerant flows, and a refrigerant outlet 3 from which the refrigerant flows out. The liquid-cooled jacket 1 may allow the refrigerant to circulate in the interior of the liquid-cooled jacket 1 using piping or a pump that is coupled to the refrigerant inlet 2 and the refrigerant outlet 3.
Among inner surfaces that form the cooling chamber, the bottom surface is a surface that extends along the to-be-cooled surface of the component, and may not be in parallel with the ground surface. For example, in a case in which the liquid-cooled jacket is fixed to the to-be-cooled surface that is not in parallel with the ground surface, the bottom surface is not in parallel with the ground surface.
The liquid-cooled jacket 1 has heat transfer portions 5 which are arranged in the cooling chamber 4, and transfers the heat from the bottom surface 4B of the cooling chamber 4 to an upper surface 4U that is formed to oppose the bottom surface 4B. The heat transfer portions 5 may include thermally conductive columns that are arranged between the bottom surface 4B and the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4. However, the heat transfer portions 5 are not limited to a specific type as long as the heat transfer portions 5 can transfer heat from the bottom surface 4B of the cooling chamber 4 to the upper surface 4U. For example, the heat transfer portion 5 may include a thermally conductive wall that is radially widened from a central portion of the cooling chamber 4.
The liquid-cooled jacket 1 has an inflow path 6 for the refrigerant having one end that is opened at the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4. The refrigerant flowing in from the refrigerant inlet 2 circulates through the inflow path 6. The inflow path 6 couples the refrigerant inlet 2 and the cooling chamber 4 in a relatively short distance. For example, in a case where the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4 is quadrangular, a portion, where diagonal lines of the upper surface 4U intersect, is a central portion of the upper surface 4U, but the inflow path 6 may be positioned at any position. The inflow path 6 may be positioned at a position where uniform cooling of the o-be-cooled surface t 51 may be expected, and for example, the inflow path 6 may not be aligned with the portion where the diagonal lines of the upper surface 4U intersect.
The liquid-cooled jacket 1 has a plurality of outflow hole 7 for the refrigerant arranged in the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4. The number of outflow holes 7 or the sizes of the outflow holes 7 may be appropriately determined based on, for example, a cooling capability required to cool the component 50, the pump for circulating the refrigerant, and the liquid property of the refrigerant. In
The liquid-cooled jacket 1 has a merging chamber 8 where the refrigerants passing through the respective outflow holes 7 merge together. The merging chamber 8 is formed at a back side of the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4. The merging chamber 8 is formed between a bottom surface 8B in which the respective outflow holes 7 arranged in the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4 are opened and an upper surface 8U that is disposed to oppose the bottom surface 8B. The liquid-cooled jacket 1 has an outflow path 9 through that the refrigerant, which has passed through the respective outflow holes 7, circulates. The outflow path 9 is formed at a back side at an edge of the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4. The outflow path 9 may be a path that guides the refrigerant from a gap provided along an edge of the upper surface 8U of the merging chamber 8 toward a back side of the upper surface 8U. The liquid-cooled jacket 1 may have the merging chamber 8. For example, the liquid-cooled jacket 1 may have separate flow paths that connect the respective outflow holes 7 and the outflow path 9, respectively.
The liquid-cooled jacket 1 has a liquid chamber 10 into which the refrigerant, which has passed through the outflow path 9, flows. The liquid chamber 10 is formed at a back side of the upper surface 8U of the merging chamber 8. The liquid chamber 10 is formed between a bottom surface 10B where an opening of the outflow path 9 is formed along an edge thereof and an upper surface 10U in which an opening of the refrigerant outlet 3 is formed.
The refrigerant, which has flowed from the refrigerant inlet 2 into the liquid-cooled jacket 1, passes through the inflow path 6. The refrigerant, which has passed through the inflow path 6, flows into the central portion in the cooling chamber 4. The inflow path 6 is positioned at the central portion of the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4, and as a result, the refrigerant flows into the central portion of the cooling chamber 4 intensively. The refrigerant, which has flowed into the central portion of the cooling chamber 4, spreads throughout the interior of the cooling chamber 4. The refrigerant, which has spread in the cooling chamber 4, passes through the respective outflow holes 7 arranged in the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4, and then flows out from the cooling chamber 4. The refrigerants, which have passed through the respective outflow holes 7, merge together in the merging chamber 8. The refrigerant, which has merged in the merging chamber 8, passes through the outflow path 9 provided at the edge of the upper surface 8U of the merging chamber 8, and then flows out from the merging chamber 8. The refrigerant, which has passed through the outflow path 9, flows into the liquid chamber 10. The refrigerant, has flowed into the liquid chamber 10, flows out from the liquid chamber 10 through the opening of the refrigerant outlet 3 formed in the upper surface 10U of the liquid chamber 10.
In the liquid-cooled jacket 1, since the refrigerant, which has passed through the inflow path 6 spreads throughout the interior of the cooling chamber 4 from the central portion of the cooling chamber 4, temperature distribution of the refrigerant may not be fluctuated in the cooling chamber 4. For this reason, any portion of the bottom surface 4B of the cooling chamber 4 is generally and uniformly cooled by the refrigerant. The to-be-cooled surface 51 of the component 50 may be generally and uniformly cooled.
In the liquid-cooled jacket 1, since the heat transfer portions 5 are formed in the cooling chamber 4, a heat transfer area in the cooling chamber 4 in contact with the refrigerant is larger than that in a case where there is no heat transfer portion 5. For this reason, the heat from the component 50 may be efficiently transferred to the refrigerant in the liquid-cooled jacket 1. In the liquid-cooled jacket 1, when the refrigerant passes through the fine outflow holes 7 arranged in the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4, the heat from the upper surface 4U of the cooling chamber 4 is removed by the refrigerant. Since the heat from the bottom surface 4B of the cooling chamber 4 has been transferred to the upper surface 4U through the heat transfer portions 5, the component 50 may be efficiently cooled in comparison with a case where no heat is transferred from the bottom surface 4B to the upper surface 4U by the heat transfer portions 5.
The central portion of the to-be-cooled surface 51 of the component 50 is likely to be at a high temperature as compared to the edge of the to-be-cooled surface 51. In the liquid-cooled jacket 1, the refrigerant, which has passed through the outflow holes 7, passes through the outflow path 9 formed at the edge of the upper surface 8U of the merging chamber 8. For this reason, a phenomenon in which the central portion of the surface 51 of the component 50 to-be-cooled is at a high temperature may be decreased as compared with a case where the refrigerant, which has passed through the outflow holes 7, flows out from the vicinity of the central portion of the upper surface 8U of the merging chamber 8.
A cooling chamber 104, which has a bottom surface 104B that extends along the surface 51 of the to-be-cooled component 50, is provided in a liquid-cooled jacket 101 illustrated in
The liquid-cooled jacket 1 illustrated in
In the third layer illustrated in
In a semiconductor device such as a central processing unit (CPU), as an example of the component 50 that may be cooled by the liquid-cooled jacket 1, a heating value is increased proportionally as the performance of the semiconductor device is increased. For this reason, a high performance is desirable for a technology of cooling the CPU. For example, a forced air cooling technology using a high-performance heat sink may be used to cool the CPU as long as the heating value thereof is about 35 W/cm2. Because the heating value of the CPU exceeds 50 W/cm2, and may exceed 60 W/cm2 later, a water cooling technology, which exhibits more excellent cooling performance than the air cooling technology, is expected to be utilized. In a special electronic device such as a supercomputer, it is possible to use cold water which circulates in the existing cooling device that is installed in a facility in which machinery is to be installed. Since no cooling device capable of cooling an electronic device using water is available in an office or at home, the cooling device may be provided in the electronic device in an office or at home in order to cool the electronic device using water. In the electronic device installed in an office or at home, a circulating water cooling method may be applied in which the water cooling technology and the air cooling technology are combined. In the case of the circulating water cooling method which removes the heat generated from the CPU using the liquid-cooled jacket, and uses a circulation path of the refrigerant which is cooled by air using a radiator, the refrigerant is circulated using, for example, a pump. For this reason, an efficient structure may be desirable which reduces a resistance that obstructs a flow of the refrigerant that circulates along the flow path and has small thermal resistance of the liquid-cooled jacket or the radiator. Because the liquid-cooled jacket is disposed close to an exothermic element such as the CPU, the structure of the liquid-cooled jacket greatly affects the cooling performance as compared with other components. For example, even compared with the liquid-cooled jacket 101 illustrated in
All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions, nor does the organization of such examples in the specification relate to a showing of the superiority and inferiority of the invention. Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, it should be understood that the various changes, substitutions, and alterations could be made hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2014-117614 | Jun 2014 | JP | national |