Cooling apparatus for electronic equipment

Details Cooling apparatus for electronic equipment Cooling apparatus for electronic equipment

2002-10-04

2004-09-21

Duong, Hung Van (Department: 2835)

Electricity: electrical systems and devices

Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...

For electronic systems and devices

C312S223600, C165S151000, C062S507000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06795312

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a cooling apparatus, with one exemplary embodiment being a cooling apparatus for cooling a heating electronic component of a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) or the like arranged inside a casing, by circulating a refrigerant therethrough.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent very rapid increase in the processing speed of computers has increased the clock frequency of a CPU, compared with computers in the past. As a result, the calorific value of the CPU increases and the cooling capability of air cooling by a heat sink as in a conventional technique is insufficient. Therefore, a highly efficient high-output cooling apparatus is required. Thus, as such a cooling apparatus, a cooling apparatus for cooling a board with a heating component mounted thereon by circulating a refrigerant therethrough is known, as disclosed in the Japanese Publication of Unexamined Patent Application No. H5-264139 and the Japanese Publication of Unexamined Patent Application No. H8-32263.
Such a conventional cooling apparatus for electronic equipment for cooling by circulating a refrigerant will now be described. The term “electronic equipment” in this specification includes, but is not limited to, a device which loads a program to its CPU or the like and performs arithmetic processing, for example, a portable small device such as a notebook model personal computer, and/or a device having a heating element which heats when it is electrified. A conventional first cooling apparatus is shown in FIG.
8
.
FIG. 8
is a structural view of the first cooling apparatus for electronic equipment. In
FIG. 8
,
100
represents a casing,
101
represents a heating component,
102
represents a board with the heating component
101
mounted thereon,
103
represents a cooler for performing heat exchange between the heating component
101
and a refrigerant and thus cooling the heating component
101
,
104
represents a radiator for removing the heat from the refrigerant,
105
represents a pump for circulating the refrigerant,
106
represents piping for connecting these elements, and
107
represents a fan for air-cooling the radiator
104
.
The operation of this conventional first cooling apparatus will now be described. The refrigerant ejected from the pump
105
passes through the piping
106
and is fed to the cooler
103
. There, as the refrigerant takes up the heat of the heating component
101
, its temperature rises and the refrigerant is fed to the radiator
104
. As the refrigerant is cooled by forced air cooling by the fan
107
, its temperature is lowered and the refrigerant is fed back to the pump
105
. This procedure is repeated. In this manner, the conventional cooling apparatus is adapted for cooling by circulating the refrigerant and thus removing the heat from the heating component
101
.
A second conventional cooling apparatus for electronic equipment is disclosed in the Japanese Publication of Unexamined Patent Application No.H7-142886. This apparatus is schematically shown in FIG.
9
. This second cooling apparatus is adapted for efficiently carrying generated heat of a heating member to a metallic casing wall as a radiator part and thus cooling the heating member when the heating member is mounted within a narrow casing. In
FIG. 9
,
108
represents a wiring board of an electronic equipment,
109
represents a keyboard,
110
represents a semiconductor heating element,
111
represents a disk device,
112
represents a display device,
113
represents a heat-receiving header for performing heat exchange with the semiconductor heating element
110
,
114
represents radiation header for radiation,
115
represents a flexible tube, and
116
represents a metallic casing of the electronic equipment.
In this second cooling apparatus, the semiconductor heating element
110
as a heating member and the metallic casing
116
are thermally connected with each other by a heat carrying device of a flexible structure. This heat carrying device is constituted by the flat heat-receiving header
113
mounted on the semiconductor heating element
110
and having a liquid flow path, the radiation header
114
having a liquid flow path and being in contact with the wall of the metallic casing
116
, and the flexible tube
115
connecting these headers. The heat carrying device is adapted for driving or circulating a liquid which is sealed therein, between the heat-receiving header
113
and the radiation header
114
by a liquid driving mechanism provided inside the radiation header
114
. Thus, the semiconductor heating element
110
and the metallic casing
116
can be easily connected with each other without being influenced by the component arrangement and the heat is carried out highly efficiently by driving the liquid. In the radiation header
114
, since the radiation header
114
and the metallic casing
116
are thermally connected with each other, the heat is broadly diffused to the metallic casing
116
because of a high thermal conductivity of the metallic casing
116
.
However, in the conventional first cooling apparatus, the cooler
103
for performing heat exchange between the heating component
101
and the refrigerant and thus cooling the heating component
101
, the radiator
104
for removing the heat from the refrigerant, and the pump
105
for circulating the refrigerant are required. To combine these elements, the apparatus is large-sized and complicated and miniaturization thereof is difficult. That is, the conventional first cooling apparatus is originally suitable for cooling a large electronic equipment, but it cannot cope with a recent portable notebook model personal computer of high performance which is small, light and thin and is to be carried in various postures.
As the electronic equipment become smaller and thinner, a cooling apparatus needs to become smaller in size. Therefore, gasification of the refrigerant and mingling of resulting bubbles, which, although can still be problematic in large-sized equipment, may potentially be ignored in the case of a relatively large-sized equipment, can become more problematic in smaller devices such as a portable lab-top computer. In particular, air bubbles formed in the flow passage of a radiator can accumulate in the pump, resulting in air-lock and deterioration in the pump operation. That is, as gasification of the refrigerant and mingling of bubbles occur, the bubbles begin to accumulate in the piping
106
and the pump
105
. If the apparatus is used in this state for a long time, the pump
105
will be inoperable because of air lock due to the growing bubbles and the efficiency of heat exchange will be gradually lowered. It is difficult for the user side to exhaust the air which has already been accumulated. Moreover, such troubles in the cooling apparatus determine the life of the electronic equipment.
Meanwhile, the conventional second cooling apparatus can be used in a notebook model personal computer or the like, but both the separate structures of a flat heat-receiving header
113
mounted on the semiconductor heating element
110
and the radiation header
114
in contact with the wall of the metallic casing
116
have to be box-shaped and thick, preventing reduction in thickness of the notebook model personal computer. Moreover, similarly to the first conventional cooling apparatus, the conventional second cooling apparatus does not have any mechanism by which to remove and restrict air bubbles from the fluid passageway of the radiator. Accordingly, in the conventional cooling apparatus said air bubbles can flow through the pump and accumulate therein. Accordingly, it cannot be avoided that bubbles which entered the flow paths of these headers grow and cause air lock in the pump, and no measures have been taken against this, whereby the prior art has not considered nor attempted to solve such problems. Moreover, the prior art has not considered removal of air bubbles from a cooling flow path, let alon

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