Patent Application
20180014426
This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0084757, filed on Jul. 5, 2016 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the exemplary embodiments relate to a multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB) module, and more particularly, to a PCB module with a multi-surface heat dissipation structure, which can effectively discharge heat generated from a multi-layered PCB to the outside, a heat dissipation plate used in the PCB module, a multi-layer PCB assembly, and a module case.
In a normal structure of a multi-layer PCB on which a power semiconductor module package is mounted, a plurality of PCBs 1 are stacked one on another as shown in
According to such a normal multi-layer PCB structure, however, since the PCBs are stacked one on another in sequence, heat generated from the circuit pattern of the PCB located inside is not efficiently discharged, and also, there are disadvantages that the structure of the PCB module becomes complicated due to the heat dissipation structure installed on the surface of the multi-layer PCB, and the volume increases.
One or more exemplary embodiments may overcome the above disadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. However, it is understood that one or more exemplary embodiment are not required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and may not overcome any of the problems described above.
One or more exemplary embodiments provide a multi-layer PCB module structure which can enhance a cooling efficiency by rapidly discharging heat generated from the multi-layer PCB to the outside through a case, and can realize a compact and slim size of a PCB module.
According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a PCB module having a multi-surface heat dissipation structure, including: a multi-layer PCB assembly which includes a heat dissipation plate having electrical insulating properties, and an upper PCB and a lower PCB attached to a top surface and a bottom surface of the heat dissipation plate, respectively; an upper case for covering a top surface of the multi-layer PCB assembly; and a lower case for covering a bottom surface of the multi-layer PCB assembly, wherein the heat dissipation plate includes; a first heat pole which is thermally in contact with an electronic circuit element mounted on the upper PCB or the lower PCB; and a second heat pole which is thermally in contact with an inner surface of at least one of the upper and lower cases.
According to an aspect of another exemplary embodiment, there is provided a heat dissipation plate having electrical insulating properties, which is used in a multi-layer PCB assembly having a multi-surface heat dissipation structure, the heat dissipation plate including: a first heat pole of a first height which protrudes from a top or bottom surface of the heat dissipation plate; and a second heat pole of a second height which protrudes from the top or bottom surface of the heat dissipation plate, wherein the heat dissipation plate is interposed between an upper PCB including a first layer circuit pattern of the multi-layer PCB assembly and a lower PCB including a second layer circuit pattern, wherein the first heat pole is thermally in contact with an electronic circuit element mounted on the upper PCB or lower PCB, and wherein the second heat pole is thermally in contact with an inner surface of a case for covering the top surface or bottom surface of the multi-layer PCB assembly.
According to an aspect of another exemplary embodiment, there is provided a multi-layer PCB assembly which is used in a PCB module having a multi-surface heat dissipation structure, the multi-layer PCB assembly including: an upper PCB which includes a first layer circuit pattern of the multi-layer PCB assembly; a lower PCB which includes a second layer circuit pattern of the multi-layer PCB assembly; and a heat dissipation plate 40 having electrical insulating properties, which is interposed between the upper PCB and the lower PCB, and wherein the heat dissipation plate includes a first heat pole which is thermally in contact with an electronic circuit element mounted on the upper or lower PCB; and a second heat pole which is thermally in contact with a surface of a case for covering the upper or lower PCB.
According to an aspect of another exemplary embodiment, there is provided a case having electrical insulating properties and thermal conductivity, for covering a multi-layer PCB assembly having a multi-surface heat dissipation structure, the case including an upper case for accommodating the top and a part of the side surfaces of the multi-layer PCB assembly; and a lower case for accommodating the bottom and a part of the side surfaces of the multi-layer PCB assembly, wherein the multi-layer PCB assembly includes: a heat dissipation plate having electrical insulating properties; and an upper PCB and a lower PCB attached to the top and bottom surfaces of the heat dissipation plate, respectively, wherein each of the upper and lower cases includes a first contact region which is thermally in contact with an electronic circuit element mounted on the upper or lower PCB, and a second contact region which is thermally in contact with a heat pole protruding from the heat dissipation plate.
According to an aspect of another exemplary embodiment, there is provided a PCB module having a multi-surface heat dissipation structure, including: a multi-layer PCB assembly which includes a heat dissipation plate having electrical insulating properties, and an upper PCB and a lower PCB attached to a top surface and a bottom surface of the heat dissipation plate, respectively; an upper case for covering a top surface of the multi-layer PCB assembly; and a lower case for covering a bottom surface of the multi-layer PCB assembly, wherein the heat dissipation plate includes a first heat pole which is thermally in contact with an electronic circuit element mounted on the upper PCB or the lower PCB, and wherein at least one of the supper and lower cases includes a second heat pole which is formed on the inner surface of the at least one and is thermally in contact with the heat dissipation plate.
According to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the heat dissipation plate is interposed between the upper and lower PCBs and is configured to be thermally and directly in contact with the cases, such that heat generated from the PCBs can be rapidly discharged to the outside and a compact and slim PCB module can be realized.
Additional and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The above and other features and advantages will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings in which:
Exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings to clarify aspects, other aspects, features and advantages of the inventive concept. The exemplary embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. Rather, the exemplary embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the application to those of ordinary skill in the art. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on” another element, the element can be directly on another element or intervening elements.
The terms used herein are for the purpose of describing particular exemplary embodiments only and are not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other components.
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments will be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The matters defined in the description, such as detailed construction and elements, are provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of the exemplary embodiments. However, it is apparent that the exemplary embodiments can be carried out by those of ordinary skill in the art without those specifically defined matters. In the description of the exemplary embodiment, certain detailed explanations of related art are omitted when it is deemed that they may unnecessarily obscure the essence of the inventive concept.
A multi-layer PCB module 100 according to an exemplary embodiment will be described with reference to
Referring to
Referring to
The upper PCB 20 may include a circuit pattern of at least one layer and may be a normal substrate having a multi-layer circuit pattern. In one embodiment, the upper PCB 20 may be formed of a substrate such as FR-4, CEM-1, CEM-3, Al Metal-PCB, or the like, and the type of the substrate is not limited to these.
The upper PCB 20 may have a penetrating portion 21 formed therethrough to allow heat poles 42 and 43 of the heat dissipation plate 40 to penetrate therethrough. The shape or location of the penetrating portion 21 may vary according to a circuit design of the PCB 20 in a specific exemplary embodiment. A plurality of electronic circuit elements 23 and 24 may be mounted on the top surface of the substrate of the upper PCB 20, and one or more pins 25 may vertically protrude from the surface of the substrate and may be electrically connected with an external electronic device. Herein, the “electronic circuit element” may refer to one of various passive elements or active elements and various types of IC chips integrating the passive or active elements thereinto.
The lower PCB 60 has the same or similar structure as or to that of the upper PCB 20. The lower PCB 60 includes a circuit pattern of at least one layer and may normally have a multi-layer circuit pattern. The lower PCB 60 may have a penetrating portion 61 formed therethrough to allow the heat poles 42 and 43 of the heat dissipation plate 40 to penetrate therethrough, and the shape or locations of the penetrating portion 61 may vary according to a circuit design of the PCB 60. A plurality of electronic circuit elements 64 may be mounted on the surface of the substrate of the lower PCB 60.
The upper PCB 20 and the lower PCB 60 are connected with each other with the heat dissipation plate 40 disposed therebetween, and thereby form the multi-layer PCB assembly 80 as one unit. In this case, an insulation layer 30 having electrical insulating properties may be interposed between the upper PCB 20 and the heat dissipation plate 40, and an insulation layer 50 having electrical insulating properties may be interposed between the lower PCB 60 and the heat dissipation plate 40. The insulation layers 30 and 50 may be made of a material having electrical insulating properties but not having thermal barrier properties or having low thermal barrier properties, and accordingly, heat generated from the upper or lower PCBs 20 and 60 may be smoothly transmitted to the heat dissipation plate 40. In one embodiment, the insulation layers 30 and 50 may be made of prepreg.
Hereinbelow, the heat dissipation plate 40 will be described with reference to
The heat dissipation plate 40 may be disposed between the upper PCB 20 and the lower PCB 60 to absorb heat generated from the PCBs 20 and 60 via various paths and discharge the heat to the cases 10 and 70. To achieve this, for example, the heat dissipation plate 40 may be made of a material having high thermal conductivity, such as copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), silicon carbide (SiC), aluminum nitride (AlN), or the like. In one embodiment, the heat dissipation plate 40 having high thermal conductivity while having electrical insulating properties and may be produced by anodizing a plate of aluminum.
The heat dissipation plate 40 may include one or more heat poles 42 and 43 formed on the top surface and the bottom surface thereof. The heat poles 42 and 43 may be protrusions vertically protruding from the top surface and the bottom surface of the heat dissipation plate 40 and formed in a pillar shape including a circular or polygonal cross section.
In the illustrated embodiment, the heat poles may include a first heat pole 42 and a second heat pole 43. The first heat pole 42 is a protrusion protruding from the surface of the heat dissipation plate 40 and having a first predetermined height. In an embodiment, as shown in
The second heat pole 43 is a protrusion protruding from the surface of the heat dissipation plate 40 and having a second predetermined height, and normally is higher than the first heat pole 42. As shown in
According to the configuration of the first and second heat poles 42 and 43, heat generated from the electronic circuit element 23 is absorbed into the first heat pole 42 and transmitted to the heat dissipation plate 40. Then, the heat is transmitted to the cases 10 and 70 through the second heat pole 43 and discharged to the outside.
In the illustrated embodiment, the heat dissipation plate 40 may further include one or more penetrating regions 44 penetrating through the top and bottom surfaces of the heat dissipation plate 40. The penetrating regions 44 may be provided to provide a contact point or a contact region where the electronic circuit elements mounted on the upper PCB 20 and the lower PCB 60 are physically or electrically in contact with each other.
For example, referring to
Therefore, according to an exemplary embodiment, at least a part of the electronic circuit elements mounted on the upper PCB 20 or the lower PCB 60 does not perform a specific function until the upper PCB 20 and the lower PCB 60 are connected with each other and are assembled into the multi-layer PCB assembly 80. According to the present disclosure, the multi-layer PCB structure is divided into the upper PCB and the lower PCB, the heat dissipation plate 40 is interposed between the PCBs, and then the upper and lower PCBs are assembled with each other, such that the multi-layer PCB assembly 80 having the heat dissipation structure of the present disclosure therein can be realized.
Referring to
The upper and lower cases 10 and 70 are connected with each other to cover the surfaces of the upper PCB 20 and the lower PCB 60, respectively, and absorb heat generated from the respective PCBs 20 and 60 and heat transmitted through the heat dissipation plate 40 and discharge the heat to the outside. The upper and lower cases 10 and 70 may perform a function as a heat sink, or may be connected with an external heat sink and transmit heat to the external heat sink.
To achieve this, the upper and lower cases 10 and 70 may be made of a material having high thermal conductivity, such as copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), silicon carbide (SiC), aluminum nitride (AlN), or the like. In one embodiment, the cases 10 and 70, which have high thermal conductivity while having electrical insulating properties, may be produced by anodizing a case of aluminum.
The upper case 10 covers the top and a part of the side surfaces of the multi-layer PCB assembly 80, and the lower case 70 may cover the bottom and a part of the side surfaces of the multi-layer PCB assembly 80.
The upper and lower cases 10 and 70 may include first contact regions 14, 16, 17, 74, and 76 which are formed on the inner surfaces of the cases to be thermally in contact with the electronic circuit elements 23, 24, and 64 mounted on the upper PCB 20 or the lower PCB 60.
For example, the first contact regions 14 and 16 on the upper case 10 are in contact with the electronic circuit element 23 mounted on the upper PCB 20, and, for example, the contact regions 14 and 16 shown in
In another example, another contact region 17 from among the first contact regions may be a recess which is lower than the inner surface of the case 10, and, for example, may be in contact with the electronic circuit element 24 which has a relatively large size like a coil. Since whether the first contact region is the protrusion or recess is related to the volume (or height) of an electronic circuit element in contact therewith, the shapes, number, or locations of the first contact regions may vary according to a specific embodiment.
Likewise, referring to
In addition, as shown in
According to the multi-layer PCB assembly 80 and the cases 10 and 70 enclosing the same as described above, heat generated from the PCBs may be discharged to the outside of the PCB module 100 via the following paths.
First, heat generated from the electronic circuit elements 23, 24, and 64 mounted on the upper PCB 20 and the lower PCB 60 is transmitted to the first heat pole 42 of the heat dissipation plate 40. Since the first heat pole 42 is thermally and directly in contact with the electronic circuit elements 23, 24, and 64 through the PCBs 20 and 60, the first heat pole 42 can more rapidly absorb heat from the electronic circuit element in comparison to related-art methods.
Second, the heat absorbed by the heat dissipation plate 40 from the upper and lower PCBs 20 and 40 is transmitted to the upper and lower cases 10 and 70 through the second heat pole 43, and is discharged to the outside of the PCB module 100. Since the second heat pole 43 is thermally and directly in contact with the upper and lower cases 10 and 70 through the substrates of the PCBs 20 and 60, the second heat pole 43 can more rapidly discharge the heat of the heat dissipation plate 40 to the cases 10 and 70 in comparison to related-art methods.
Third, heat generated from the electronic circuit elements mounted on the upper PCB 20 and the lower PCB 60 may be transmitted to the cases 10 and 70 through the first contact regions 14, 16, 17, 74, and 76 of the upper and lower cases 10 and 70 as well as through the first heat pole 42. As shown in
As described above, the PCB module 100 has a multi-surface heat dissipation structure which can discharge heat via various paths due to the configuration of the multi-layer PCB assembly 80 and the cases 10 and 70. In addition, there is an additional effect that the inner space of the PCB module 100 can be greatly reduced and thus the compact and slim PCB module can be produced.
For example, a TO-220 chip may be mounted as the electronic circuit element to be mounted on the PCBs 20 and 60. In this case, according to a related-art method, the TO-220 chip may be mounted on a multi-layer PCB substrate in an upright position, and heat generated from the chip may be transmitted to a case through an inner space of the case (filled with air) and discharged to the outside of the case.
However, according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the TO-220 chip may be mounted on the PCBs 20 and 60, being laid in a horizontal position, with one side surface thereof being in contact with the first heat pole 42 and the other side surface being in contact with the first contact regions 14 and 74. Accordingly, since the chip can be laid in the horizontal position, the inner empty space of the PCB module 100 can be greatly reduced and the thickness of the module 100 can be reduced. Heat generated from the chip can be more rapidly discharged through the heat dissipation plate 40 and the cases 10 and 70 located on both surfaces of the chip.
Therefore, when the PCB module of the present disclosure is applied to a high-power element package, the power elements can be integrated. For example, the inventor of the present disclosure conducted an experiment by applying the configuration of the PCB module 100 of the present disclosure to an on board charger (OBC) for a vehicle. As a result of the experiment, the volume of a 13 KW OBC device using a related-art multi-layer PCB structure was 20 liters, and the volume was greatly reduced to 6 liters when the configuration of the PCB module of the present disclosure was applied. In addition, it was revealed that the heat dissipation effect increased by 30 to 40% in comparison to the related-art method.
Hereinafter, alternative embodiments of the PCB module 100 according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to
For example, penetrating holes 85 may be formed through the regions of the multi-layer PCB assembly 80 which are not covered by the cases 10 and 70 as shown in
Although the heat dissipation structure 90 is attached to the lower case 70 in
Therefore, the heat pole 43 for thermally connecting the heat dissipation plate 40 and the cases 10 and 70 may be formed on any side of the heat dissipation plate and the case, and in an alternative embodiment, the heat pole 43 may be formed as an independent element separate from the heat dissipation plate 40 or the cases 10 and 70 and then both ends of the heat pole 43 may be connected to the heat dissipation plate and the cases.
While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, the scope of the invention is defined not by the detailed description of the invention but by the appended claims, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2016-0084757 | Jul 2016 | KR | national |
