Patent Application
20090205810
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a liquid cooling device and, in particular, to a liquid cooling device for several electronic devices.
2. Description of Related Art
As modern computers have to process very complicated processes, its internal circuit design also becomes more complicated. Various electronic devices therein produce heat during their operations. Therefore, a liquid cooling device has been introduced. The liquid cooling device includes several liquid blocks, one pump and one heat sink. The liquid blocks are filled with a coolant and directly disposed on electronic device for absorbing heat from them. The liquid blocks are in fluid communications with the pump and the heat sink via ducts. Therefore, the pump operates to make the coolant circulate in the liquid blocks. The coolant thus exchanges heat with the liquid blocks. After the coolant absorbs the heat accumulated on the heat sink, it flows back to the liquid blocks for heat exchange.
From the above explanation, it is seen that the existing liquid block is designed for a single electronic device of a particular size. To dissipate heat generated by several electronic devices on a mother board, the liquid cooling device has to have several liquid blocks respectively disposed on the electronic devices. However, this complicates the assembly and increase the production cost. It is therefore imperative to make a further improvement in the current liquid cooling device.
An objective of the invention is to provide a liquid cooling device for dissipating heat produced by several heat-generating electronic devices.
The disclosed liquid cooling device includes: a liquid block, a heat-dissipating plate, a highly thermal-conductive pipe, a pump, and a heat sink. The liquid block is filled with a coolant therein and disposed on a heat-generating electronic device to absorb. The heat-dissipating plate is disposed on another heat-generating electronic device to absorb heat. The highly thermal-conductive pipe is connected with the heat-dissipating plate and in communications with the liquid block for the coolant to flow through. The highly thermal-conductive pipe has a high thermal conductivity. Therefore, it has better heat absorbing/dissipating ability. The pump is in fluid communications with the liquid block via a duct. The heat sink is in fluid communications with the pump and the liquid block via ducts.
Using the above-mentioned technical means, the invention only needs one liquid block, along with the heat-dissipating plate and the highly thermal-conductive pipe, to dissipate heat produced by the two heat-generating electronic devices. It can simultaneously water-cool them. The invention does not only reduce the cost by using one less liquid block, but also simplifies the duct connection among the components.
With reference
The liquid block is filled with a coolant and mounted on the north bridge chip 12 to absorb heat thereof. In this embodiment, the liquid block includes a body 21 and a separator 22.
The body 21 is mounted on the north bridge chip 12 and comprises a cap being mounted on a bottom board. The cap can be integrally formed with the bottom board. The separator 22 is formed inside the cap to separate an inner space of the cap into two chambers 211. Further, with multiple heat-dissipating fins 212 are formed on the bottom board within the two chambers 211. The outer surface of the body 21 is formed with four fluid inlets/outlets 213 that are in fluid communications with the corresponding chamber 211 in pairs.
The bottom surface of the heat-dissipating plate 30 is in contact with the south bridge chip 11 for absorbing heat generated by the south bridge chip 11. In this embodiment, the heat-dissipating plate 30 comprises a bottom plate 31 and a fixing plate 32.
With further reference to
The fixing plate 32 is mounted on the top surface of the bottom plate 31. A bottom surface of the fixing plate 32 is formed with concave portions 321 corresponding to the grooves 311 of the bottom plate 31, so that an accommodating space is formed between the concave portions 321 and the corresponding grooves 311. The fixing plate 32 is formed with several screw holes 322 corresponding to the screw holes 313 on the bottom plate 31. Screws are then used to lock the fixing plate 32 on the bottom plate 31.
The highly thermal-conductive pipe 40 is made of a material with a high thermal conductivity. Therefore, the thermal-conductive pipe 40 has better heat absorbing/dissipating ability. In this embodiment, the highly thermal-conductive pipe 40 has a U shape configuration with two parallel parts correspondingly mounted on the grooves 311 of the heat-dissipating plate 30. One end of the highly thermal-conductive pipe 40 is connected with the liquid block, in fluid communications with the fluid inlet/outlet 213 of one of the chambers 211, so that the coolant thus can flow into the chamber 211. The other end of the highly thermal-conductive pipe 40 is connected with the liquid block, in fluid communications with the fluid inlet/outlet 213 of the other chamber 211, so that the coolant can flow into the other chamber 211.
The pump 50 is connected onto the liquid block via a duct 51 with the fluid inlet/outlet 213 that is in fluid communications with one of the chambers 211, so that the coolant can flow into the chamber 211 in the liquid block.
The heat sink 60 is connected with the pump 50 and onto the liquid block with the fluid inlet/outlet 213 in communication with the other chamber 211 via two ducts 61, respectively. The pump 50 drives the coolant to circulate among the liquid block, the heat-dissipating plate 30, the highly thermal-conductive pipe 40, and the pump 50, and the heat sink 60.
When the pump 20 is running, the coolant is driven to circulate in the pump 50, the heat sink 60, the liquid block, the heat-dissipating plate 30, the highly thermal-conductive pipe 40, and ducts 51, 61. Thus, the coolant flowing through the liquid block and the highly thermal-conductive pipe 40 absorbs heat accumulated on the liquid block and the heat-dissipating plate 30. As the coolant absorbed with the heat flows through the heat sink 60, the heat is dissipated. The coolant then circulates back to the liquid block and the heat-dissipating plate 30 to dissipate heat on the south and north bridge chips 11, 12.
In summary, the invention uses a heat-dissipating plate and a liquid block to concurrently absorb heat generated by several heat-generating electronic devices. The heat-dissipating fins and the highly thermal-conductive pipe on the heat-dissipating plate can further enhance the heat dissipating effect. In comparison with the conventional liquid cooling device, the invention uses one less liquid block to reduce the production cost. Moreover, it simplifies the connections among various components.
The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
