Cooler for electronic device

Details Cooler for electronic device Cooler for electronic device

2001-11-08

2004-12-21

Ciric, Ljiljana (Department: 3753)

Heat exchange

With retainer for removable article

Electrical component

C361S690000, C361S698000, C361S694000, C165S080300

Reexamination Certificate

active

06832646

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cooler for an electronic device, for example, a cooler for an electronic device, which is suitable for cooling a CPU, or the like contained in a thin type electronic device such as a notebook personal computer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Since heating parts are accommodated within an electronic device, it has hitherto been carried out to radiate the heat of the heating parts out of the electronic device so that the heat from the heating parts do not have any adverse influence upon any other electronic parts. In the conventional electronic device, for example, a radiating fin is provided on the upper surface of the heating part to carry out self-cooling via the radiating fin.
However, in a cooler having such a type of a radiating fin as being provided on the upper surface of the heating part in order to carry out self-cooling, the cooler becomes taller due to the radiating fin provided on the upper surface of the heating part and, thus, the cooler is not suitable for a thin type electronic device like a notebook personal computer.
For this reason, in a recent thin type electronic device such as a notebook personal computer, the heat has been radiated out by transferring the heat generated from the heating parts to the body of the device or the keyboard through a heat pipe. In such a type of cooler, when the heat is radiated outwardly, forcible air-cooling by means of a small size fan or the like is carried out in order to enhance the effect for heat-radiation.
However, although the cooler described above using the heat pipe satisfies the requirement for producing a thin type electronic device, the effect of heat-radiation is limited due to the use of the heat pipe, making the cooler unsuitable for an electronic device accommodating an electronic part which generates a large amount of heat such as a CPU having an increasingly improved performance.
As a cooler which has solved such problem and which has an enhanced effect of heat-radiation, a cooler has been suggested in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.7-142886, in which a cooling liquid is circulated within the heating element to allow the heating element to be forcibly cooled. Such type of conventional cooler will now be described by referring to FIG.
7
.
As shown in
FIG. 7
, a heating element c such as a semiconductor element is provided on the surface of a wiring substrate which is stored in a body made of metal, this body being in the form of a casing of the electronic device. A cooler for the heating element c is composed of a heat-receiving header d provided on the upper surface of the heating element c, a radiating header e secured on a metal casing g in the form of a case lid and a pair of flexible tubes f communicating with the inside of the heat receiving header d and the inside of the radiating header e.
Furthermore, a liquid channel in which a liquid flows back and forth is formed within the heat-receiving header d. Both ends of the liquid channel are connected to the inside of the radiating header e via the two respective flexible tubes f. A liquid channel in which a liquid flows back and forth, a piston for circulating a cooling liquid within the liquid channel and a motor which drives the piston via a link mechanism are placed within the radiating header e.
In the cooler for an electronic device thus constructed, the heat generated from the heating element is transmitted to the heat-receiving header d, and the heat received by the heat-receiving header d is then transmitted to the cooling liquid which flows within the heat-receiving header d.
Almost all of the heat transmitted to the cooling liquid is then transmitted out to the radiating header e from the inner wall of the liquid channel within the radiating header e, but the remaining part of the heat maintains the temperature of the cooling liquid.
The heat transmitted to the heat-radiation header d is mainly emitted to the atmosphere via the metal body g, but if there is heat which is not emitted, the temperature of the heat-radiation header e is kept high.
Technical problems for the cooler for an electronic device described above also remain as described herein below:
(1) There is a technical problem that due to the increases in the much higher processing speed and performance of the CPU and due to the modularization of the components and the onboard new units associated with multimedia accompanying the progress in the CPU, power consumption is rapidly increased to in turn increase the amount of the heat generated from the heating elements contained in the electronic device, so that the heat transmitted to the cooing liquid cannot be sufficiently radiated out through the radiating header. Furthermore, since the circulation of the cooling liquid is carried out by means of the piston, the circulation of the cooling liquid becomes discontinuous, making it impossible to sufficiently radiate out the heat.
(2) Since the heat-receiving header and the radiating header are connected by means of the flexible tubes, there is a risk of damaging the electronic device itself when the flexible tubes are damaged, causing the cooling liquid to leak. What is worse, there is a technical problem with regard to many more man-hours being required for mounting, since in the cooler described above, after the heat-receiving header and the radiating header have been mounted, the flexible tubes must be placed on the wiring substrate.
(3) Moreover, the parts composing the cooler is separately distributed therewithin, making it difficult to cut down on the space in a notebook personal computer or the like. This prevents the notebook personal computer or the like from being downsized and made thinner.
As described above, no cooler has yet been provided which fulfills the following requirements for a smaller size or thinner type of electronic device like a notebook personal computer, i.e., the cooler must be smaller and thinner, the cooler must have an effective and sufficient effect for heat-radiation, and the cooler can safely be used in such an electronic device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to solve the technical problems described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cooler for an electronic device which is smaller and thinner than the conventional cooler, which can show a sufficient cooling effect with higher effectiveness, and which has no risk of being damaged.
A cooler for an electronic device according to the present invention, which has been made to attain the object described above is a cooler for an electronic device which cools a heating element provided on the electronic device, which comprises: a liquid cooling mechanism composed of a heat sink which is formed in a flat shape, having a heat-receiving face at one surface thereof intended to be in contact with said electronic device, and having a liquid channel accommodated therein, a pump portion comprising a housing which is formed into a flat shape and which has an impeller, which can be rotated, provided therein, and metal pipes, each of which connects said liquid channel to said pump portion; and a forcible air cooling mechanism, composed of a radiating fin provided on the outer surface of said metal pipes, and a fan which cools said radiating fin and said housing, said liquid cooling mechanism and said forcible air cooling mechanism being unified with each other.
Due to such a construction, since the heat sink is formed into a flat shape, the heat-receiving face can be enlarged and, thus, the heat generated in the electronic device is transmitted to the liquid channel via the heat-receiving face having such an enlarged area, making it possible to maintain the temperature of the electronic an device within the tolerance level. On the other hand, since the cooling liquid heated due to the heat exchange is forcibly cooled by means of the forcible air cooling mechanism, the cooler can maintain a large cooling effect, even if the electronic device is used over a prolonged period of time. The higher the cooling

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