JP2006100692A - Cooling apparatus and electronic appliance provided therewith - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cooling apparatus which is blocked and small and where reduction of a refrigerant liquid is reduced, and to provide an electronic appliance provided with the same. <P>SOLUTION: The cooling apparatus is provided with: a pump 1 for circulating a refrigerant liquid having received heat by a heat reception part; a radiator 3 for radiating heat received by the refrigerant liquid; a reservation tank 2 for housing the refrigerant liquid and performing vapor liquid separation of the circulating refrigerant liquid for keeping a circulation amount constant; and a circulation channel for connecting the three elements of the pump 1, the radiator 3, and the reservation tank 2 with each other. The three elements are arranged in one direction. It is a main feature that an element arranged in the middle of the three elements is provided with two joint pipes for connecting circulation channels between itself and the other two elements on both of the sides; and a bypass channel for repeating two channels from each element, and a joint pipe for performing the connection of it for constituting the circulation channels connecting the two element with each other. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a cooling device that cools the heat of a heat generating portion while circulating a refrigerant, and an electronic device including the same.

  Conventionally, as a device for cooling a heat generating portion such as a semiconductor integrated circuit, for example, a microprocessor such as a computer device, the heat of the heat generating portion is taken away using a refrigerant liquid, which is transferred to a radiator to be radiated to the atmosphere. A cooling device is known (see Patent Document 1). FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional cooling device.

  This conventional cooling device will be described. In FIG. 6, 51 is a heat generating part such as a microprocessor to be cooled. As is well known, a semiconductor integrated circuit generates heat when it operates, and at this time, if it is insufficiently cooled, it may cause a malfunction. The heat generating portion 51 shown in FIG. 6 is such a heat generating component in an electronic device. Reference numeral 52 denotes a heat receiving portion that contacts the heat generating portion 51 and exchanges heat with the heat generating portion 51. The heat generated in the heat generating portion 51 by this heat exchange moves to the circulating refrigerant liquid. 53 is a pump for circulating the refrigerant liquid whose temperature has been increased by this heat. Reference numeral 54 denotes a radiator that exchanges heat between the refrigerant liquid conveyed by the pump 53 and external air to radiate heat to the atmosphere. A reserve tank 55 stores refrigerant liquid in advance in order to compensate for the decrease in refrigerant liquid. A heat receiving portion 52 is placed on the heat generating portion 51, and a pump 53 is disposed on the heat receiving portion 52. This arrangement allows heat exchange. 56 is a pipe that guides the refrigerant liquid discharged from the pump 53 to the radiator 54, 57 is a pipe that leads the refrigerant liquid cooled by the radiator 54 to the reserve tank 55, and 58 is a pipe that guides the refrigerant liquid from the reserve tank 55 to the pump 53. is there.

The discharge side of the pump 53 is connected to a radiator 54 by a pipe 56, and this radiator 54 is connected to a reserve tank 55 through a pipe 57. Further, a reserve tank 55 is connected to the suction side of the pump 53. A pump 53, a reserve tank 55, and a radiator 54 are further stacked in this order on the heat receiving part 52 placed on the heat generating part 51. A refrigerant liquid circulation passage that returns from the heat receiving portion 52 to the heat receiving portion 52 again via the pump 53, the radiator 54, and the reserve tank 55 is used as a set.
JP-A-7-142886

  However, as shown in FIG. 6, the conventional cooling device has an arrangement in which a pump 53, a reserve tank 55, and a radiator 54 are stacked in this order on the heat receiving portion 52. In addition, a pipe 56 that jumps over the reserve tank 55 located in the middle of the three elements is required. However, in such a configuration, there is a problem that the size of the space in the pipe 56 increases due to the routing of the pipe 56, and the cooling device cannot be reduced in size.

  The pipes 56, 57, and 58 are often rubber or resin pipes. Such pipes gradually evaporate through the wall surface, but external air is mixed instead. For this reason, there has been a problem that the refrigerant liquid decreases with the passage of time, and if the lengths of the pipes 56, 57, and 58 are long, the area capable of mass transfer increases, and the rate of decrease in the refrigerant liquid increases.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device that is block-sized, is small, and has a small decrease in refrigerant liquid, and an electronic device including the same.

  The present invention provides a pump for circulating the refrigerant liquid received by the heat receiving unit, a radiator for radiating the heat received by the refrigerant liquid, and gas-liquid separation of the refrigerant liquid that contains and circulates the refrigerant liquid, thereby reducing the circulation amount. A cooling device comprising a reserve tank that is kept constant, and a circulation channel that connects the three elements of the pump, the radiator, and the reserve tank to each other, and in which the three elements are arranged in one direction. The elements disposed in the middle include two joint pipes that respectively connect the circulation flow paths between the two elements on both sides, and 2 from each element to form a circulation flow path that connects the two elements. The main feature is that a bypass channel that relays two channels and a joint pipe that connects the channels are provided.

  According to the cooling device of the present invention, when the three elements of the pump, the radiator, and the reserve tank are made into a block, the size can be reduced, and the length of the circulation flow path is reduced because the two elements on both sides are relayed by the bypass flow path. The refrigerant liquid that evaporates from the circulation flow path can be reduced and the replenishment refrigerant liquid does not need to be replenished frequently. In addition, according to the electronic device of the present invention, it is possible to provide an electronic device that is small in size, has little decrease in refrigerant liquid, and is easy to maintain.

  A first invention made to solve the above problems is a pump for circulating the refrigerant liquid received by the heat receiving unit, a radiator for dissipating the heat received by the refrigerant liquid, and a refrigerant containing and circulating the refrigerant liquid A reserve tank that performs gas-liquid separation of liquid and keeps the circulation rate constant, and a circulation channel that connects the three elements of the pump, radiator, and reserve tank to each other, and the three elements are arranged in one direction. The cooling device, which is arranged in the middle of the three elements, includes two joint pipes that respectively connect the circulation flow paths between the two elements on both sides, and a circulation flow that connects the two elements to each other. This is a cooling device with a bypass flow path that relays two flow paths from each element to form the path and a joint pipe that connects the two flow paths, and when the three elements of the pump, radiator, and reserve tank are blocked Downsizing It is possible, between the two side elements can be shortened the length of the circulation flow path for relaying in the bypass passage, decreases refrigerant liquid evaporates from the circulation passage.

  A second invention of the present invention is an invention subordinate to the first invention, and is a cooling device in which three elements are stacked in the order of a pump, a reserve tank, and a radiator from the bottom, and is arranged at the bottom. Since the heat of the heat generating component is received by the pump and radiated by the radiator disposed at the top, the radiated heat is not received again.

  A third invention of the present invention is an invention dependent on the first or second invention, wherein the bypass flow path is a cooling device provided on the surface of an element arranged in the middle by three elements, and the bypass The length of the flow path can be made extremely short.

  A fourth invention of the present invention is an invention dependent on the second or third invention, wherein the height of the reserve tank is lower than the height of the radiator, the height of the reserve tank is low, and the bypass tank The circulation channel that relays through the channel and connects the pump and the radiator is shortened, and the refrigerant liquid that evaporates from the circulation channel is reduced.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic apparatus comprising the cooling device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, wherein the heat receiving portion of the cooling device is placed on a heat generating component, and is small in size and has a refrigerant. It is possible to provide an electronic device that is less likely to lose liquid and easy to maintain.

(Embodiment 1)
Embodiment 1 of the present invention relates to a cooling device mounted on a computer device as an electronic device. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the entire cooling device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, 1 is a pump for circulating a coolant such as water or an aqueous solution of propylene glycol, and 1a is a heat receiving portion (shown in FIG. 2) provided on the bottom surface of the pump 1.

The pump 1 is preferably a turbo pump such as a centrifugal pump or a vortex pump containing an impeller inside, and has a thickness of 3 mm to 20 mm and a representative radial dimension of 10 mm to 70 mm so that it can be placed on a small microprocessor. The rotation speed is 600 rpm to 4000 rpm, the flow rate is 0.01 L / min to 1.5 L / min, the head is 0.1 m to ² m, and the specific speed is 12 to 200 (unit: m, m ³ / min, rpm). It is extremely small. And the heat receiving part 1a is a wall surface which can be closely_contact | adhered to the microprocessor formed in the casing side surface of this turbo type pump.

  Reference numeral 2 denotes a reserve tank, which contains a refrigerant liquid for replenishment in advance to compensate for the decrease in the refrigerant liquid. The circulating refrigerant liquid performs gas-liquid separation to remove mixed air, and the circulation amount is constant. Is to keep That is, the refrigerant liquid gradually evaporates through the pipe wall surface and the connecting portion constituting the circulation flow path, but external air enters the refrigerant liquid through the pipe wall surface instead. For this reason, the reserve tank 2 is provided with an air reservoir for separating the air from the refrigerant liquid so as not to circulate the air mixed in due to the decrease in the refrigerant liquid, and when the air mixed in the air reservoir is separated. Supplements the same volume of refrigerant liquid as air and sends it out to the circulation channel. Thereby, the circulation amount is maintained. The reserve tank 2 according to the first embodiment is provided on the pump 1. The reserve tank 2 is provided with a bypass passage for bypassing the refrigerant liquid on the outer surface or inside thereof.

  Reference numeral 3 denotes a radiator that radiates heat of the refrigerant liquid heated by the heat receiving portion 1a to the atmosphere. In the radiator 3, a large number of fins are fixed to a radiator pipe 7 (described later) through which a refrigerant liquid passes, and heat transmitted to the inner wall surface of the pipe is transmitted from the pipe surface to the fins, and heat is applied by applying air to the fins. It releases heat to the atmosphere. The radiator 3 includes a fin having a thin plate material such as aluminum or copper, and a radiator pipe 7 such as a copper tube penetrating the fin.

  4 is a base of the cooling device, 5 is a side plate sandwiching the pump 1, reserve tank 2, and radiator 3 from both sides, 6 is a top plate that joins the tops of the two side plates 5, and 7 penetrates a large number of fins. It is a radiator pipe. Accordingly, the heat receiving portion 1a, the pump 1, the reserve tank 2, and the radiator 3 are stacked in order in the vertical direction (one direction in the present invention) and fixed to a box composed of the base 4, the side plate 5 and the top plate 6, A 1-block cooling device is configured. The pump 1, the reserve tank 2, and the radiator 3 are connected by a pipe to form a circulation channel.

2 is a front view of the cooling device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a side view of the cooling device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. 2 and 3, reference numeral 11 denotes a first pipe for sending the refrigerant liquid discharged from the pump 1 to an inlet of a later-described bypass passage 35 (see FIG. 5) provided in the reserve tank 2, and 12 denotes a reserve tank. 2 is a second pipe for sending the refrigerant liquid from the outlet of the bypass passage 35 provided in 2 to the inlet of the radiator 3. Next, 13 is a third pipe for returning the refrigerant liquid cooled by the radiator 3 to the reserve tank 2, and 14 is a fourth pipe for sending the refrigerant liquid from the reserve tank 2 to the pump 1. The radiator 3 is provided with a radiator pipe 7, and the second pipe 12 and the third pipe 13 are connected to the radiator pipe 7. The first pipe 11, the second pipe 12, the third pipe 13, and the fourth pipe 14 are
In order to facilitate the work when piping, it is composed of a rubber tube having flexibility and low gas permeability, for example, a rubber tube such as butyl rubber, or a resin such as polyphenylene ether (PPE).

  1, 2, and 3, the projected shapes of the reserve tank 2 and the radiator 3 on the plane are substantially the same, and the height (width in the height direction) of the radiator 3 is reserved. It is higher than the tank 2 and the reserve tank 2 is arranged at the lower part of the radiator 3 and assembled. Thus, since the reserve tank 2 located in the middle of the cooling device is lower in height, the length of the piping can be shortened when piping the circulation channel.

  In the cooling device of the first embodiment, when heat from the microprocessor (not shown) is absorbed by the heat receiving unit 1a, the heat is transmitted to the pump 1 to heat the refrigerant liquid passing through the pump 1. The refrigerant liquid whose temperature has increased due to heat exchange reaches the radiator 3 via a bypass passage provided in the reserve tank 2. In the radiator 3, the heat of the refrigerant liquid is transmitted from the surface to the fins through the wall surface of the radiator pipe 7 and is released from the fins into the atmosphere, and the temperature of the refrigerant liquid is lowered. The refrigerant liquid whose temperature has decreased returns to the pump 1 again via the reserve tank 2.

  Thus, since the heat receiving part 1a is below and the pump 1, the reserve tank 2, and the radiator 3 are arranged in order, the heat of the microprocessor arranged at the bottom is received by the heat receiving part 1a and arranged at the top. The radiator 3 is dissipated, and the air heated below as in the case where the radiator 3 is disposed in the lower part rises in the air and is received again by raising the ambient temperature of the upper heat receiving part 1a. There is no such thing.

  4 is an AA cross-sectional view of the reserve tank 2 of the cooling device of FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory cross-sectional view of the reserve tank 2 extracted from FIG. 4 and 5, 31 is an inflow joint pipe to which the first pipe 11 is connected, 32 is an outflow joint pipe to which the second pipe 12 is connected, and 33 is an inflow joint to which the third pipe 13 is connected. A pipe 34 is an outflow joint pipe to which the fourth pipe 14 is connected. Reference numeral 35 denotes a bypass passage provided in the reserve tank 2. The third pipe 13 connected to the radiator 3 and the fourth pipe 14 connected to the pump 1 are two flow paths of the present invention for constituting a circulation flow path connecting the radiator 3 and the pump 1, and are bypassed. Relayed by the flow path 35. The inflow joint pipes 31 and 33 and the outflow joint pipes 32 and 34 are the joint pipes in the first embodiment of the present invention.

  The bypass passage 35 is provided at a position suitable for relaying the piping of the reserve tank 2, receives the high-temperature refrigerant liquid sent from the pump 1 through the first pipe 11, and receives the radiator through the second pipe 12. 3 is allowed to flow. Instead of using a single pipe from the pump 1 to the radiator 3 as in the prior art, the relay is temporarily relayed at a position determined by the bypass flow path 35. If the opening of the inflow joint pipe 31 is directed in the direction of the pump 1 and the opening of the outflow joint pipe 32 is directed in the direction of the radiator 3, a long pipe is not necessary, and the first pipe 11 and the second pipe 12 have the shortest length. become. That is, when a single pipe is connected to the uppermost radiator 3 by jumping from the lowermost pump 1 to the intermediate reserve tank 2, it is inevitably long if the piping is made with a pipe made of rubber or resin. In the cooling device 1, the relay is relayed by the bypass flow path 35, so that the pipe having the shortest length and the installation direction can be made stable. Similarly, the 3rd pipe 13 and the 4th pipe 14 can also be made into the shortest length by choosing the direction of opening of inflow joint pipe 33 and outflow joint pipe 34.

And since the length of the 1st pipe 11, the 2nd pipe 12, the 3rd pipe 13, and the 4th pipe 14 can be shortened in this way, the amount of evaporation of the refrigerant liquid through the pipe wall surface is reduced, and the mixture of air The amount can be reduced. This reduces the number of times the refrigerant liquid is replenished and facilitates maintenance. In addition, the cooling device becomes compact in addition to the piping, and the heat receiving portion 1a, the pump 1, the reserve tank 2, and the radiator 3 are stacked in this order on the heat generating component, so that it is easy to use and small in size.

  By the way, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the reserve tank 2 has a bottomed rectangular tube shape or a bowl-like shape of A or B formed of a resin mold such as polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) or polyphenylene ether (PPE). It is manufactured by joining the members by ultrasonic welding. A bypass channel 35 is provided at the corner of the surface of the member A. As a result, the reserve tank 2 has a box shape, and a certain amount of the refrigerant liquid can be stored therein to be separated into gas and liquid. Note that the shapes of the inflow joint pipe 31, the outflow joint pipe 32, the inflow joint pipe 33, and the outflow joint pipe 34 are not the only shapes shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and are open according to the layout of the pipes constituting the circulation flow path. Direction and deformation are possible. Further, in order to facilitate processing of the bypass channel 35, the length of the channel is as short as possible. The bypass channel 35 flows into the corner of the rectangular parallelepiped of the reserve tank 2 from the inflow joint pipe 31 on the front side and from the outflow pipe 32 on the side surface side. It is desirable to form such that it flows out.

  By the way, when the cooling device is used in an electronic device, the size and shape of the radiator 3 change according to changes in the heat dissipation amount and the heat dissipation efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to change the size, capacity, number, and pipe diameter of the pumps. However, to change the pump for each electronic device, a small and complicated pump must be metal-worked according to each case, and the piping for the reserve tank 2 and the radiator 3 can be changed in various ways. There must be. It is difficult to cope with changes in the heat radiation amount and the heat radiation efficiency by such a method. On the other hand, since the reserve tank 2 can be relatively easily manufactured by a resin mold, it is easier to process than the pump. Therefore, in order to cope with the change of the radiator 3, the electronic device can be easily manufactured by changing the reserve tank 2 existing in the middle to cope with the various radiators 3.

  In the cooling device according to the first embodiment described above, the heat generating component such as a microprocessor is arranged at the bottom, the heat receiving portion 1a is brought into contact, and the pump 1, the reserve tank 2, and the radiator 3 are sequentially stacked thereon. It is what was arranged. However, the three elements of the pump 1, the reserve tank 2, and the radiator 3 are not necessarily arranged in this order. In some cases, it is necessary to arrange them in the horizontal direction instead of the vertical direction, or to change them in a different order depending on the layout of the components of the electronic device. In the present invention, the arrangement order of the three elements can be appropriately changed as described above. At this time, the element in which the bypass flow path is formed may be a pump or a radiator. However, in the case of a pump, the element may be provided on the outermost fin or the like in the case of a radiator.

  The present invention can be applied to a cooling device that cools the heat of the heat generating portion while circulating the refrigerant, and an electronic device including the same.

The perspective view of the whole cooling device in Embodiment 1 of this invention Front view of cooling device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention Side view of cooling device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. AA sectional view of the reserve tank of the cooling device of FIG. Sectional drawing for description which extracted the reserve tank of FIG. Block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional cooling device

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Pump 1a Heat receiving part 2 Reserve tank 3 Radiator 4 Base 5 Side plate 6 Top plate 7 Radiator pipe 11 1st pipe 12 2nd pipe 13 3rd pipe 14 4th pipe 31, 33 Outflow joint pipe 32, 34 Outflow joint pipe 35 Bypass Flow path

Claims (5)

A pump for circulating the refrigerant liquid received by the heat receiving unit, a radiator for radiating the heat received by the refrigerant liquid, and gas-liquid separation of the refrigerant liquid that contains and circulates the refrigerant liquid to keep the circulation amount constant. A cooling device comprising a reserve tank, a circulation flow path connecting the three elements of the pump, the radiator, and the reserve tank to each other, wherein the three elements are arranged in one direction, The elements arranged in the middle of the elements include two joint pipes respectively connecting the circulation flow paths between the two elements on both sides, and each element for constituting a circulation flow path connecting the two elements. A cooling apparatus comprising a bypass flow path that relays two flow paths from and a joint pipe that connects the bypass flow path. The cooling device according to claim 1, wherein the three elements are stacked in the order of a pump, a reserve tank, and a radiator from the bottom. The cooling device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the bypass flow path is provided on a surface of an element arranged in the middle of the three elements. The cooling device according to claim 2 or 3, wherein a height of the reserve tank is lower than a height of the radiator. An electronic apparatus comprising the cooling device according to claim 1, wherein the heat receiving portion of the cooling device is placed on a heat-generating component.

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