Patent Application
20070284089
Various advantages of embodiments of the present invention will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art by reading the following specification and appended claims, and by referencing the following drawings, in which:
Reference is made to some embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the present invention will be described in conjunction with the embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, in the following detailed description of the invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the invention.
Reference in the specification to “some embodiments” or “some embodiments” of the invention means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least some embodiments of the invention. Thus, the appearances of the phrase “in some embodiments” or “according to some embodiments” appearing in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
In some embodiments, a heat pipe or vapor chamber includes carbon nanotube wick structures to facilitate the transfer of thermal energy. The heat pipe may be implemented within an apparatus with a heat exchanger, and a cold plate with a cold plate internal volume. In some embodiments, the heat pipe may be situated within the cold plate internal volume. In some embodiments, the heat pipe includes a thermally conductive wall material forming the inner dimensions of the heat pipe, a catalyst layer deposited onto the wall material, a carbon nanotube array formed on the catalyst layer, and a volume of working fluid.
According to some embodiments, the apparatus may be implemented within a computing system. The system may include a frame, one or more electronic components, and the apparatus, which may be implemented to cool one or more of the electronic components.
The heat pipe 100 may also include a wick structure 106, which may in some embodiments be about a millimeter thick. In some embodiments, the wick structure may be formed of carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes are useful due to their thermal properties, as one of ordinary skill in the relevant art would appreciate based at least on the teachings provided herein. As such, the nanotubes may have a thermal conductivity in the range of about 3000 Watts per meter Kelvin. As one of ordinary skill in the relevant art would appreciate, other thermal conductivities may be achieved based on the composition, arrangement and application of the nanotubes.
The heat pipe 100 may also include a vapor space 104, which may in some embodiments be about a millimeter thick. In some embodiments, the vapor space may be filled with a working fluid such as, but not limited to, water or ethanol.
In some embodiments, the wall material 102/108 may be placed in thermal contact with a thermal interface material (TIM) 112, and a die or IC 114. In some embodiments, the heat pipe may include one or more thermally conductive fins 110 on either the top (A) or bottom (B).
Furthermore, the nanotubes may be formed in an array of straight nanotubes grown using plasma CVD, a lithography pattern, or a metalized wall, as one of ordinary skill in the relevant arts would appreciate based at least on the teachings provided herein.
For example, in some embodiments, the nanotubes may be grown using the plasma CVD process or thermal CVD. They may also be grown into arrays or bundles by selective deposition of a catalyst, such as but not limited to nickel, iron, or cobalt, in one or more layers.
In some embodiments, a conduit of tubing (shown in
In some embodiments, the cold plate 404 may include a manifold plate, where the manifold plate contains the heat pipe 402.
The apparatus 400 may be integrated entirely into the frame 501, and thus, the frame 501 may include a heat exchanger 510, a cold plate (or manifold plate) 502 with a cold plate internal volume, and a heat pipe 516 in the cold plate internal volume. In some embodiments, the heat pipe 516 may include a thermally conductive wall material forming the inner dimensions of the heat pipe, a catalyst layer deposited onto the wall material, a wick of a carbon nanotubes formed on the catalyst layer, and a volume of working fluid.
In some embodiments, a conduit of tubing 506 may be coupled to the cold plate 502 and the heat exchanger 510. In some embodiments, a pump 508 may be coupled to the conduit 506, wherein the pump 508 may circulate a cooling fluid through the conduit 506 between the cold plate 502 and the heat exchanger 510.
In some embodiments of the invention, a frame component 512 may be included in the computer system 500. The frame component 512 may receive thermal energy from the heat exchanger 510. The system 500 may also include a blower 514, such as, but not limited to, a fan or other air mover.
Electrical power may be provided to various components of the computing device 602 (e.g., through a computing device power supply 606) from one or more of the following sources: One or more battery packs, an alternating current (AC) outlet (e.g., through a transformer and/or adaptor such as a power adapter 604), automotive power supplies, airplane power supplies, and the like. In some embodiments, the power adapter 604 may transform the power supply source output (e.g., the AC outlet voltage of about 110 VAC to 240 VAC) to a direct current (DC) voltage ranging between about 7 VDC to 12.6 VDC. Accordingly, the power adapter 604 may be an AC/DC adapter.
The computing device 602 may also include one or more central processing unit(s) (CPUs) 608 coupled to a bus 610. In some embodiments, the CPU 608 may be one or more processors in the Pentium® family of processors including the Pentium® II processor family, Pentium® III processors, Pentium® IV processors available from Intel® Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif. Alternatively, other CPUs may be used, such as Intel's Itanium®, XEON™, and Celeron® processors. Also, one or more processors from other manufactures may be utilized. Moreover, the processors may have a single or multiple core design.
A chipset 612 may be coupled to the bus 610. The chipset 612 may include a memory control hub (MCH) 614. The MCH 614 may include a memory controller 616 that is coupled to a main system memory 618. The main system memory 618 stores data and sequences of instructions that are executed by the CPU 608, or any other device included in the system 600. In some embodiments, the main system memory 618 includes random access memory (RAM); however, the main system memory 618 may be implemented using other memory types such as dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), and the like. Additional devices may also be coupled to the bus 610, such as multiple CPUs and/or multiple system memories.
The MCH 614 may also include a graphics interface 620 coupled to a graphics accelerator 622. In some embodiments, the graphics interface 620 is coupled to the graphics accelerator 622 via an accelerated graphics port (AGP). In an embodiment, a display (such as a flat panel display) 640 may be coupled to the graphics interface 620 through, for example, a signal converter that translates a digital representation of an image stored in a storage device such as video memory or system memory into display signals that are interpreted and displayed by the display. The display 640 signals produced by the display device may pass through various control devices before being interpreted by and subsequently displayed on the display.
A hub interface 624 couples the MCH 614 to an input/output control hub (ICH) 626. The ICH 626 provides an interface to input/output (I/O) devices coupled to the computer system 600. The ICH 626 may be coupled to a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus. Hence, the ICH 626 includes a PCI bridge 628 that provides an interface to a PCI bus 630. The PCI bridge 628 provides a data path between the CPU 608 and peripheral devices. Additionally, other types of I/O interconnect topologies may be utilized such as the PCI Express™ architecture, available through Intel® Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif.
The PCI bus 630 may be coupled to an audio device 632 and one or more disk drive(s) 634. Other devices may be coupled to the PCI bus 630. In addition, the CPU 608 and the MCH 614 may be combined to form a single chip. Furthermore, the graphics accelerator 622 may be included within the MCH 614 in other embodiments. As yet another alternative, the MCH 614 and ICH 626 may be integrated into a single component, along with a graphics interface 620.
Additionally, other peripherals coupled to the ICH 626 may include, in various embodiments, integrated drive electronics (IDE) or small computer system interface (SCSI) hard drive(s), universal serial bus (USB) port(s), a keyboard, a mouse, parallel port(s), serial port(s), floppy disk drive(s), digital output support (e.g., digital video interface (DVI)), and the like. Hence, the computing device 602 may include volatile and/or nonvolatile memory.
In some embodiments, the process may then proceed to 708, where the process may seal the wall material, catalyst layer, and carbon nanotubes in a heat pipe. The process may then proceed to 710, where it may fill the heat pipe with a working fluid. The process may then proceed to 712 where it ends, and is able to start again at any of the points 700-710, as one of ordinary skill in the relevant arts would appreciate based at least on the teachings provided herein.
Embodiments of the invention may be described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. Other embodiments may be utilized, and structural, logical, and intellectual changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Moreover, it is to be understood that various embodiments of the invention, although different, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in some embodiments may be included within other embodiments. Those skilled in the art can appreciate from the foregoing description that the techniques of the embodiments of the invention can be implemented in a variety of forms.
Therefore, while the embodiments of this invention have been described in connection with particular examples thereof, the true scope of the embodiments of the invention should not be so limited since other modifications will become apparent to the skilled practitioner upon a study of the drawings, specification, and following claims.
