Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-05
2003-02-25
Schuberg, Darren (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S704000, C361S695000, C257S719000, C165S121000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06525939
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat sink apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a heat sink apparatus used for the heat dissipation of computer chips.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among the prior art relating to heat sinks, a computer CPU (Central Process Unit) is usually installed together with an extrusion heat sink apparatus or a die-casting heat sink apparatus for heat dissipation. Referring to
FIG. 1
, the figure illustrates a perspective view of a square extrusion heat sink apparatus
01
, comprising a fan
10
, a square extrusion heat sink module
20
and a latch
30
. In the figure, the base
21
of the square extrusion heat sink module
20
is directly in contact with the heat generating part
71
of the CPU
70
. As a result, heat is dissipated immediately to the cooling fins
22
. As the fan
10
generates airflow, it guides the airflow to the cooling fins
22
for heat dissipation. In the square extrusion heat sink module
20
, the cooling fins
22
extend vertically from the base
21
, except for the space across the middle reserved for fixing the latch
30
. Together the individual cooling fins
22
form a square on the base
21
. The square extrusion heat sink module
20
is mounted on the CPU socket
73
at the flange
72
positioned at both sides of the socket with the latch
30
. By coupling the attachment holes
11
on fan
10
and the mounting holes
23
on the square extrusion heat sink module
20
, the fan
10
and the square extrusion heat sink module
20
are connected.
FIG. 2
illustrates a perspective view of a die-casting heat sink module
40
. The die-casting heat sink module
40
is often applied to notebook computers. The die-casting heat sink module
40
is a single-piece module die-cast. As shown in the figure, the attachment holes
11
on the fan
10
are secured to the mounting holes
41
on the heat sink module
40
, and the latch
50
is used to secure the entire heat sink module
40
.
Referring back to
FIG. 1
, the heat sink module
20
(
FIG. 1
) comprises a base
21
, wherein one side is the surface from which the cooling fins
22
extend and the other side is in direct contact with the CPU
70
. In this way the heat generated by the CPU
70
is dissipated evenly to the cooling fins
22
. The fan
10
generates airflow towards the cooling fins
22
that dissipates heat. With the development of chipset technology, the size of chips is minimized. However, limited by factors such as standards of chipset pins and CPU sockets, current CPU size cannot be further reduced. The heat generated by a CPU comes primarily from the CPU chips not the entire CPU. The currently used heat sink module
20
is in contact with the full surface area of the CPU
70
, instead of concentrating on the area where central CPU chips are positioned. As a consequence, it is unable to evenly dissipate heat from the chips of the CPU
70
and from the base
21
of the heat sink module
20
to the cooling fins
22
, which results in unsatisfactory heat dissipation. In accordance with the prior art, the cooling fins
22
and the base
21
of the square heat sink module
20
often divert airflow against the fan
10
, which also results in unsatisfactory heat convection. The invention provides a heat sink module that reduces the mentioned diverted airflow and accordingly serves to enhance heat dissipation capacity.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the concept mentioned above, the prior art heat sink module fails to offer an effective solution to the problem of uneven dissipation of heat from a CPU to the cooling fins. The heat sink apparatus disclosed in the invention provides a metal heat conduction column for heat conduction. The metal heat conduction column is a cylinder. The base of the cylinder covers exactly said heat generating part
71
of the CPU
70
, not its entire surface area. As a consequence, the heat from the CPU
70
can be evenly dissipated through the metal cylinder. Furthermore, a plurality of cooling fins extend from the metal column and the cooling fins radiate from the cylinder, which enables it to dissipate heat generated by CPU
70
evenly to the cooling fins and facilitate heat dissipation efficiency.
According to the above-mentioned prior art, the prior art cooling fins
22
and the base
21
of the square heat sink module
20
often divert airflow that affects the performance of the fan
10
. The invention further provides arc-shaped cooling fins radiating from the central metal cylinder. The current CPU
70
applies surface mount technology, SMT, in the heat generating part
71
, which slightly protrude from the surface of CPU
70
. In response to this design, the metal heat conduction column disclosed in the invention is in direct contact with the CPU
70
, and arc-shaped cooling fins radiate from the edge of the metal heat conduction column. According to the principles of air dynamics, under said structure, the heat sink apparatus in accordance with the invention allows the airflow generated by the fan to circulate along the arc-shaped cooling fins. Furthermore, the gap between the lower edge of the arc-shaped cooling fins and the CPU surface improves the convection of the airflow.
Another purpose of the invention is to enhance the heat dissipation efficiency of the metal heat conduction column. One option of the invention regarding the metal heat conduction column is to replace the metal material with other more conductive metals such as copper, to improve conduction efficiency between the metal conduction column and CPU
70
and thereby facilitate the dissipation efficiency.
The invention provides a latch to mount the metal heat conduction column onto the CPU. The latch comprises a latch arm, a plurality of openings and at least one latch hole, in which said latch arm is secured to the socket of the CPU. Each of said openings correspond to the mounting holes of the heat sink module
64
and attachment holes of the fan
10
. The latch arm is secured to the flange
72
at side of the CPU socket
73
as shown in FIG.
1
. The fan
10
and the heat sink module
64
are thereby mounted onto the CPU with the latch and act as the heat sink apparatus disclosed in the invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4695924 (1987-09-01), Wozniczka
patent: 5597034 (1997-01-01), Barker et al.
patent: 5661638 (1997-08-01), Mira
patent: 5795685 (1998-08-01), Dean
patent: 5943209 (1999-08-01), Liu
patent: 6196300 (2001-03-01), Checceehetti
patent: 6330908 (2001-12-01), Lee et al.
patent: 6360816 (2002-03-01), Wagner
Liang Chuan-Yi
Sun Sho-Chang
Acer Inc.
Bednarek Michael D.
Datskovsky Michael
Schuberg Darren
Shaw Pittman LLP
LandOfFree
Heat sink apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Heat sink apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Heat sink apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3165845