Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-05
2003-04-22
Schuberg, Darren (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S695000, C454S184000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06552898
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for cooling components within an electronics or a computer system enclosure. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus for cooling the core logic components of a computer system.
2. Background Information
Integrated circuits (ICs) are typically housed within a plastic or ceramic package. The packages have leads or surface pads that are soldered to a printed circuit board. The circuit board and package are often located within an enclosed chassis that contains other circuitry associated with the electronic system such as peripherals, memory cards, video cards, power supplies, etc. The chassis typically contains fans that remove the heat generated by the IC and other system components.
It is desirable to have a high rate of heat transfer from the IC package in order to maintain the junction temperatures of the IC within safe operating limits. In the case of modern microprocessors, employed in many electronic systems, computer systems in particular, millions of transistors in internal circuitry are typically employed, thereby requiring some type of cooling mechanism; otherwise, excessive junction temperatures may affect the performance of the circuit and cause permanent degradation of the device. Furthermore, in order for computer system manufacturers to remain profitable while facing the precipitous price erosion of computer systems, the manufacturers need to analyze and attempt to reduce the pricing of each computer system component. Hence, having a standardized, efficient, reliable and cost effective heat removal methods has become critical in the design of computer system enclosures. One prior art system utilizing an exhaust fan and some air ducts for cooling in a computer system enclosure is shown in
FIGS. 1A
,
1
B and
1
C (Nelson in U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,883, issued on Nov. 25, 1997).
FIG. 1A
illustrates a top view of the prior art system. Enclosure
10
comprises a variety of components including a power supply
17
, microprocessor
14
, peripherals
24
and cards
16
. Cards
16
may comprise any of a number of components, such as, for example, memory cards, modem cards, video cards, daughter boards, etc.. Peripherals
24
may include a floppy or hard disk driver or a number of other peripheral devices commonly known in the art.
Enclosure
10
is divided primarily into three sections. These include card slot and peripheral compartment
25
, power supply compartment
11
, and air duct
13
. As illustrated, compartment
25
contains peripherals
24
and cards
16
. Compartment
11
contains power supply
17
and the cooling system fan
12
. Air duct
13
houses the computer system processor
14
.
The cooling fan
12
resides in power supply compartment
11
. Fan
12
pulls air into enclosure
10
by creating a low pressure zone within the power supply compartment
11
. Air duct
13
provides an air flow path from opening
26
, at the exterior of enclosure
10
, to an inlet opening
29
of compartment
11
. The air duct is configured to direct cool air from the exterior of enclosure
10
across processor
14
. By passing cool, unheated air over processor
14
, a maximum achievable heat transfer is established across the processor. As the air flow passes over processor
14
, it is heated. The heated air then passes along air duct
13
into compartment
11
through opening
29
. In order to provide cooling to compartment
25
, an air flow is established by providing openings
20
and
21
within air duct walls
18
and
19
, respectively. (See
FIGS. 1B and 1C
.)
Although the cooling method and system of
FIG. 1
is well established, some problems still exist. First, the enclosure with the previously described air duct, the fan, and all the openings can only operate with certain computer board designs. In other words, since components such as the power supply, various add-on cards, etc. can only reside in particular compartments of the enclosure, users' abilities to upgrade their computer boards and reuse the enclosure are severely hampered. Secondly, the cooling mechanism seems to focus more on the processor and not the rest of the system. As a result, other compartments of the enclosure will not receive cool, ambient air directly from the exterior of the enclosure, but will instead receive heated air after the air has already passed over the processor. Thus, cooling to other parts of the computer system may be ineffective, and more heat sinks are likely required to compensate for this shortcoming. Undoubtedly, these additional heat sinks will increase the cost of manufacturing computer systems. Lastly, the prior art describes a cooling mechanism which is built into the computer chassis. Because of the extra complexity in including the cooling system in the chassis's structure, implementing the invention described in
FIG. 1A
is certainly more costly than building the cooling and structural components separately and then assembling them together.
Therefore, an apparatus and method is needed to solve the aforementioned problems associated with using an one fan cooling system which is part of a computer system enclosure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A cooling assembly is disclosed. In one embodiment, the cooling assembly includes a fan for use to direct cool air onto heat dissipating electronic components, and a linear air guiding duct-housing combination for use to house the fan and to guide the cool air to the fan. The linear air guiding duct-housing combination is constituted with material(s) and/or structural supports that allow the cooling assembly to be mounted in a cantilever manner against a chassis wall of a chassis, overhanging the heat dissipating electronic components.
In one embodiment, the cooling assembly further includes an air hood coupled to the linear air guiding duct-housing combination to facilitate in-take of cool air from a direction angular to the linear air guiding duct-housing combination.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4449164 (1984-05-01), Carlson et al.
patent: 4674004 (1987-06-01), Smith et al.
patent: 4744005 (1988-05-01), Milani
patent: 5107398 (1992-04-01), Bailey
patent: 5409419 (1995-04-01), Euchner et al.
patent: 5428503 (1995-06-01), Matsushima et al.
patent: 5523917 (1996-06-01), Searby
patent: 5566377 (1996-10-01), Lee
patent: 5592363 (1997-01-01), Atarashi et al.
patent: 5691883 (1997-11-01), Nelson
patent: 5788467 (1998-08-01), Zenitani et al.
patent: 5852547 (1998-12-01), Kitlas et al.
patent: 6064571 (2000-05-01), Noble
patent: 6130819 (2000-10-01), Lofland et al.
Lea-Edmonds Lisa
Schuberg Darren
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