Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-02
2002-08-20
Schuberg, Darren (Department: 2855)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S689000, C361S688000, C165S104330, C062S259300, C174S015200, C400S082000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06437978
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cooling device, a cooling method therefor, and an electronic apparatus to be cooled by the cooling device, and particularly to a cooling device for cooling the whole inside of a main body of an electronic apparatus, a cooling method therefor, and an electronic apparatus having a main body to be cooled by the cooling device.
FIG. 23
shows a related art personal computer
1
including a main body
2
and a display unit
3
. The main body
2
contains devices mounted on a board, such as a CPU and a video chip, which generate heat during operation thereof. To suppress the temperature rise of the whole main body
2
, the main body
2
generally has an air outlet
4
disposed typically in the back surface of the main body
2
, and also contains a cooling unit
11
shown in FIG.
24
. Air in the main body
2
, warmed by heat generated from the devices, is discharged to outside through the air outlet
4
by the cooling unit
11
.
The cooling unit
11
shown in
FIG. 24
has a housing
12
in which a fan
13
is contained. An air inlet
14
through which outside air is sucked by rotation of the fan
13
is provided in the upper surface of the housing
12
, and an air outlet
15
through which the air having been sucked from the air inlet
14
is discharged is provided in one side surface of the housing
12
.
FIGS. 25A and 25B
are front and rear views of the cooling unit
11
.
FIG. 26
is a sectional view taken on line X
1
-X
2
of the personal computer
1
shown in FIG.
23
. Referring to
FIG. 26
, the housing
12
of the cooling unit
11
is connected, via a thermal conductor
22
such as a heat pipe, to the board
21
on which the devices such as a CPU and a video chip are mounted. The cooling unit
11
is mounted in such a manner that the air outlet
15
is aligned to the air outlet
4
of the main body
2
.
The first cooling function of the cooling unit
11
will be described below. Heat generated from the devices are transferred to the housing
12
of the cooling unit
11
via the board
21
and the thermal conductor
22
, to warm air in the housing
12
. Since the fan
13
of the cooling unit
11
is rotated to suck outside air from the air inlet
14
and discharge it from the air outlet
15
, the warmed air in the housing
12
is discharged to outside via the air outlet
15
of the cooling unit
11
and the air outlet
4
of the main body
2
. In this way, the devices as a heat source or the board
21
on which the devices are mounted are cooled by discharging the air in the housing
12
, which has been warmed by heat having been transferred via the board
21
and the thermal conductor
22
.
The second function of the cooling unit
11
will be described below. The heat from the devices or the board
21
also warms air in a space F, to increase the temperature of the air in the space F. The warmed air in the space F is sucked in the cooling unit
11
from the air inlet
14
and is discharged from the cooling unit
11
to outside via the air outlets
15
and
4
by rotation of the fan
13
of the cooling unit
11
. In this way, the space F is cooled by discharging the warmed air in the space F. If a gap between the air inlet
14
of the cooling unit
11
and the inner wall of the main body
2
is broadened, a space G is similarly cooled in accordance with the second cooling function.
The temperature rise of the whole main body
2
is suppressed by cooling respective portions in the main body
2
as described above.
However, along with the miniaturization of the personal computer
1
, the main body
2
has come to be thinned, and more concretely the height of the main body
2
has come to be lowered. Accordingly, a gap between the air inlet
14
of the cooling unit
11
and the inner wall of the main body
2
has come to be made narrow. This presents a problem that the air resistance of the gap or the air flow path becomes high and thereby air does not smoothly flow in the gap, with a result that the sucking of air in the cooling unit
11
from the air inlet
14
is insufficient, so that the temperature rise of the main body
2
cannot be sufficiently suppressed.
To allow air in the main body
2
to be sucked in the cooling unit
11
from the air inlet
14
via the air flow path having a high air resistance, it is required to make large the size of the cooling unit
11
. As a result, there arises another problem that it is difficult to miniaturize the main body
2
.
According to the related art cooling unit
11
, air in the space G opposite to the air inlet
24
, which is warmed by the heat generated from the devices, is less sucked in the cooling unit
11
from the air inlet
24
, and therefore, the warmed air in the space G cannot be sufficiently discharged to outside. As a result, there occurs a further problem that it is difficult to sufficiently suppress the temperature rise of the whole main body
2
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device capable of easily discharging air in a main body of an electronic apparatus of even a miniature type in which a gap between an air inlet of the cooling device and the inner wall of the main body is narrow, a cooling method therefor, and an electronic apparatus having a main body to be cooled by the cooling device.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device capable of discharging air even in a space, opposite to an air inlet of the cooling device, in a main body of an electronic apparatus, a cooling method therefore, and an electronic apparatus having a main body to be cooled by the cooling device.
To achieve the above first object, according to the present invention, there is provided a cooling device for cooling the inside of a main body of an electronic apparatus including said main body having a movable bottom surface portion and a display unit openable/closable relative to said main body, said cooling device including: means for transmitting an opening/closing angle of said display unit; and means for driving said movable bottom surface portion in accordance with said opening/closing angle of said display unit transmitted by said transmission means, to enlarge the inner space of said main body, thereby cooling the inside of said main body.
To achieve the above first object, according to the present invention, there is also provided a cooling method for cooling the inside of a main body of an electronic apparatus including said main body having a movable bottom surface portion and a display unit openable/closable relative to said main body, said method including the steps of: transmitting an opening/closing angle of said display unit; and driving said movable bottom surface portion in accordance with said opening/closing angle of said display unit transmitted at said transmission step, to enlarge the inner space of said main body, thereby cooling the inside of said main body.
To achieve the above first object, according to the present invention, there is also provided an electronic apparatus including a main body having a movable bottom surface portion and a display unit openable/closable relative to said main body, said electronic apparatus including: means for transmitting an opening/closing angle of said display unit; and means for driving said movable bottom surface portion in accordance with said opening/closing angle of said display unit transmitted by said transmission means, to enlarge the inner space of said main body, thereby cooling the inside of said main body.
With the configurations of the above cooling device and the cooling method, since the movable bottom surface portion is driven in accordance with the transmitted opening/closing angle of the display unit to enlarge the inner space of the main body, it is possible to sufficiently cool the inside of the main body.
With the configuration of the above electron apparatus, since the movable bottom surface portion is driven in accordance with the transmitted opening/closing angle of the display unit, to enlarge the inner spac
Hokao Shigeyuki
Mizoguchi Motoshi
Nakai Yasuhiro
Ozaki Yuzo
Sonehara Takashi
Frommer William S.
Frommer & Lawrence & Haug LLP
Lea-Edmonds Lisa
Ryan Matthew K.
Schuberg Darren
LandOfFree
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