Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-24
2002-03-05
Thompson, Gregory (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S689000, C361S695000, C710S108000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06353536
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic equipment system comprising a portable electronic device such as a portable computer, and an extension device for. expanding the functions of the electronic device and for connecting external peripheral equipment to the electronic device.
DISCUSSION OF THE BACKGROUND
The increasing portability of electronic equipment such as portable computers and mobile communication terminal equipment have the increased commercial value of such electronic equipment. Emphasis has been placed on decreasing the size and the weight of such electronic equipment, so that the equipment can be easily carried in a purse, bag, briefcase, or the like.
As the housing of the portable electronic equipment becomes a more compact size, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain space for installing connectors for connecting the portable electronic equipment to external peripheral equipment and for accommodating memory device drives such as a floppy disk drive or a CD ROM drive. Accordingly, portable computers typically have a special expansion connector for connecting to an extension device (typically called a docking station). The extension device allows a portable computer to have increased functionality comparable to that of installation-type computers.
The extension device typically has a base with a flat box shape. The upper surface of the base forms a flat mounting surface on which the portable computer can be detachably mounted.
The base includes a circuit board on which a variety of circuit components are mounted, a floppy disk drive and a CD-ROM drive. Furthermore, the side walls or the rear wall of the base include a plurality of connectors for connection to various external terminal equipment such as an external keyboard, an external display, or a printer. These floppy disk drive, CD-ROM drive, circuit board and connector are electrically connected to the portable computer through the expansion connector when the portable computer is mounted on the mounting surface of the base.
The processing speed of the microprocessing units (MPUs) in portable computers has been increasing as well as the diversity of functionality for processing multimedia data. Corresponding to this increased processing capability, the MPUs consume increasingly more power and thereby generating increasing amounts of heat. When such MPUs are contained in the housing of a portable computer, the need to efficiently radiate heat from the MPU to outside the housing increases.
The portable computer typically is directly cooled by forced air convection. The extension device includes a fan unit. The ability of the cooling system of the extension device is determined by the blowing capability of the fan unit and the diameter of the exhaust port. To enhance the cooling ability of the housing, therefore, the size of the cooling fan is increased and the diameter of the exhaust port is increased in proportion thereto.
According to this constitution, however, when the portable computer is removed from the base, a large exhaust port remains exposed in the mounting surface of the base. When a user accidentally drops foreign matter, such as a clip or a staple of a stapler, on the mounting surface, such foreign matter may fall through the exhaust port and enter the base where electronic parts such as a circuit board and the components are located. When the foreign matter is electrically conductive, such foreign matter may short circuit the electronic components in the extension device, thereby damaging or rendering the extension device inoperable.
In order to prevent foreign matter from entering the exhaust port, the diameter of the exhaust port is decreased or a grid-like guard is installed on the exhaust port to prevent the infiltration of foreign matter. However, decreasing the area of the exhaust port reduces the flow of the cooling air and increases the flow resistance of the cooling air. Consequently, the amount of cooling air that is exhausted from the exhaust port is decreased, and the cooling performance of the housing is not sufficiently maintained.
According to the conventional cooling system, the exhaust port for exhausting the cooling air is arranged at a position corresponding to the MPU. In the conventional portable computers, in general, the MPU is typically located in a rear part of the housing separated away from the palm rest to suppress the effect of heat to the user. Therefore, the exhaust port of the base is formed at a position away from the central portion of the mounting surface. In the conventional cooling system, therefore, the cooling air blown from the exhaust port is blown to the rear part of the bottom wall of the housing, and is released from the extension device through a gap between the bottom wall and the mounting surface. Therefore, the bottom wall of the housing is cooled only locally.
In the conventional cooling system, furthermore, the air in the base is sucked by the fan unit. For this purpose, a plurality of suction ports is formed in the side walls or in the bottom wall of the base. When the fan unit is driven, a negative pressure acts on the suction ports, and the air on the outer side of the extension device is drawn into the base through the suction ports. According to this constitution, however, when the extension device is placed on the top board of a desk, the suction ports face the top board or the suction ports are positioned close to the top board, permitting dust and dirt on the top board to be easily drawn into the base through the suction ports. Therefore, the interior of the base is contaminated, and dust adheres on the electric circuit components in the base, causing troubles to the extension device.
In modem portable computers emphasizing the reduction of the thickness of the housing, the circuit board and the circuit components are densely packaged in the housing, making it difficult to maintain space for accommodating a fan and a heat sink. Therefore the sizes of the fan and the heat sink are decreased, making it difficult to sufficiently enhance the cooling performance of the MPU.
In particular, when the extension device is connected to the portable computer to let the MPU execute complex arithmetic processings, the MPU generates heat in correspondingly increased amounts. With the existing small fan and heat sink, therefore, it is difficult to obtain cooling performance that meets the amount of heat generated by the MPU, and the MPU is cooled insufficiently.
As a result, the temperature of the MPU exceeds an operation guarantee level, creating problems such as a delay in the processing speed and malfunctioning, and making it no longer possible to obtain maximum performance of the MPU.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic equipment system capable of preventing troubles that may result from the infiltration of foreign matter yet maintaining cooling performance for the electronic equipment, and an extension device for expanding the functions of the electronic equipment.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic equipment system capable of efficiently cooling the electronic equipment mounted on the mounting portion and of preventing the occurrence of troubles by suppressing the suction of dust and dirt as much as possible.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic equipment system capable of efficiently cooling the housing of the electronic equipment and the heat-generating body by utilizing an extension device and of obtaining performance of the electronic equipment to a sufficient degree, and the extension device for expanding the functions of the electronic equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an electronic equipment system comprises an electronic device and an extension device. The extension device has a mounting portion on where the electronic device is detachably mounted. The extension device expands the functionality of the electronic device. The extension device includes a fan unit for cooling, an openin
Nakamura Hiroshi
Shibasaki Kazuya
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Thompson Gregory
LandOfFree
Electronic equipment system and extension device for... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Electronic equipment system and extension device for..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Electronic equipment system and extension device for... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2883229