JP2931966B2 - Electronic equipment cooling device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cooling device for an electronic device, and more particularly to a cooling device for cooling a printed circuit board by attaching a planar heat pipe to a plurality of adjacent printed circuit boards so as to cover each printed circuit board. The present invention relates to a cooling device for an electronic device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In some electronic devices, for example, a test head of an IC tester, a large number of printed circuit boards are arranged adjacently and in parallel for miniaturization. In order to guarantee the operation of a large number of heat-generating components such as ICs mounted on the printed board, the printed board is conventionally cooled by a cooling fan.

For example, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a planar heat pipe 2 covering each printed circuit board 1 is attached to a plurality of printed circuit boards 1 arranged in parallel and adjacent to each other inside a test head. The heat receiving portion 3 absorbs the heat from the heat-generating electronic components, and the heat radiating fins 5 are provided in the heat radiating portions 4 at the ends of the heat pipes so as to be arranged in a line. on the other hand,
A fan chassis 6 containing two (two in this example) axial-flow type cooling fans 7 is connected to the above-described radiating fins 5.
And the air flow from the cooling fan 7 is applied to the heat radiating fins 5 of the heat radiating portion 4 of the heat pipe 2 to cool the heat pipe 2.

[0004]

However, in the case of the cooling device for a printed circuit board using the cooling fan, the radiation fins 5 and the cooling fan 7 are separated from each other in consideration of the characteristics of the cooling fan 7 for the following reasons. It is necessary to secure a distance D1 of a certain value or more between them.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the air flow distribution A of a single axial fan is not uniform, and just two ellipses are connected in a forked shape. For this reason, in a fan chassis in which two axial fans are disposed at appropriate intervals,
When the total air volume distribution is distanced along the horizontal axis, a dead zone C that does not enter any of the two dicotyledons is generated near the cooling fan 7 on the horizontal axis. Therefore, in order to avoid this and prevent the radiation fins 5 from being located in the dead zone C, the distance D1 between the radiation fins 5 and the cooling fan 7 is set to a certain value or more, and the overall airflow of the large mountain shape is increased as a whole. It must be used at distribution B.

Therefore, in the case of the cooling device for the printed circuit board using the cooling fan, the size of the cooling device is increased by the distance that the cooling fan 7 must be separated from the radiation fin 5 by the distance D1. The fan chassis 6 also has a predetermined thickness D2.
, The size of the cooling device is further increased accordingly. Specifically, for example, 30 mm is required as the distance D1 and 50 mm is required as the thickness D2. When both are combined, it is necessary to secure a space of 80 mm.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art by adopting a duct system instead of a cooling system using a cooling fan, and to reduce the size of electronic equipment with high cooling efficiency. It is to provide a device.

According to the cooling apparatus for electronic equipment of the present invention, a planar heat pipe attached to a plurality of adjacent printed circuit boards so as to cover each printed circuit board and a heat radiating portion of each of the above heat pipes are attached. A fin, a cooling plate having a gas outlet on the contact surface, which is commonly attached in close contact with the fin, and a gas supply pipe which communicates with the gas outlet of the cooling plate and supplies a cooling gas to the gas outlet. Wherein the gas outlet comprises a plurality of holes,
Make the outlet hole progressively larger downstream of the cooling gas flow.
It is a diameter .

[0009]

The cooling gas supplied to the cooling plate from the gas supply pipe is blown out from a gas outlet of the cooling plate. Fins attached to the heat radiating portion of the heat pipe are located near each gas outlet of the cooling gas. The blown cooling gas passes through the fin side of the heat radiating portion of each heat pipe, and efficiently dissipates heat from the heat radiating portion.

In the present invention, since the cooling gas is directly blown to the fins of the heat pipe radiating portion, there is no need to consider fan characteristics as in the conventional cooling fan system. Further, since a cooling plate having a gas outlet on the contact surface is attached to each fin in close contact with each other, it is necessary to take a distance D1 between the radiation fin and the cooling fan in the conventional cooling fan system. Absent. For this reason, it is possible to obtain a cooling device for an electronic device that is smaller and has higher cooling efficiency than the conventional device. Also, a cooling fan is not required.
Further, the thickness of the cooling plate having the gas outlets can be smaller than the thickness D2 of the fan chassis in the conventional cooling fan system, so that the size of the cooling device can be reduced from this aspect.

Here, room temperature air or cold air can be used as the cooling gas. In addition, a known fastening structure can be used for the close contact between the cooling plate and the fin. Also, by making the diameter of the hole of the gas outlet larger toward the downstream, the amount of cooling gas blown out from each gas outlet can be made uniform so as to be the same for all fins. it can. The shape of the hole of the gas outlet can be any shape such as a polygonal hole such as a round hole or a rectangle, or a slit.

The form of the plurality of adjacent printed boards includes a form in which a plurality of printed boards are arranged in parallel, a form in which a plurality of printed boards are radially arranged, and the like.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. This embodiment is an example applied to a test head of an IC tester.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, inside the test head, a plurality of printed circuit boards 1 are arranged adjacently in parallel. Here, for convenience of explanation, a case where three printed circuit boards 1 are arranged in parallel will be described as an example. The lower ends of these printed circuit boards 1 are inserted and connected to connectors of a motherboard (not shown). Heat generating electronic components 8 such as LSIs are mounted on each printed circuit board 1, and a planar heat pipe 2 is attached to each printed circuit board 1 so as to cover these heat generating electronic components 8. Printed circuit board 1
Indicates a single-sided mounting, but may be a double-sided mounting, and the printed circuit boards are separated from each other to ensure air permeability.

The heat receiving portion 3 of the heat pipe 2 for absorbing the heat of the heat-generating electronic component 8 is located in the board area of the printed board 1,
The heat radiating portion 4 of the heat pipe 2 that emits the heat absorbed by the heat receiving portion 3 extends outward from one side of the printed circuit board 1 (to the left in FIG. 1). In the heat pipe 2, a large number of closed loop liquid paths through which the working fluid flows between the heat receiving section 3 and the heat radiating section 4 are formed.

The heat radiating fins 5 are attached to the heat radiating portions 4 of the respective heat pipes 2. Each of the radiating fins 5 has a saw-toothed cross section and has on its surface a large number of fin elements 9 (see FIG. 4) running in the direction in which the heat pipe 2 extends.

The radiating fins 5 are arranged so that their outer end surfaces are substantially flush with each other. The hollow fins function as ducts through which cooling gas passes by being in close contact with the outer end surfaces of the radiating fins 5 in common. Cooling plate 10 is attached. The size of the cooling plate 10 is such that the width W is 120 mm and the thickness D3 is 10 mm. The cooling plate 10 and the radiation fins 5
The close contact is performed by a known fastening structure (not shown).

The cooling plate 10 shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, each of the radiation fins 5 has a gas outlet 11 for discharging the cooling gas G toward the groove 9a and the hole 9b between the fin elements 9. In this example, the cooling plate 10 is 3
Each of the gas outlets 11a, 11b, 11c is shown as having one gas outlet 11a, 11b, 11c.
“c” is provided on the cooling plate 10 so as to exist for each radiating fin 5 of the radiating portion 4 of the heat pipe 2 to be cooled. The upstream end of the cooling plate 10 communicates with the gas outlets 11a, 11b, 11c of these cooling plates, and the gas outlet 1
A gas supply pipe 12 for supplying a cooling gas G is connected to 1a, 11b, 11c. The cooling gas may be a gas having a high cooling effect or air cooled in advance,
Here, compressed air obtained by compressing air at room temperature with a blower is used, and the gas supply pipe 12 is connected to a blower as a compressed gas supply source (not shown).

The cooling gas G supplied to the cooling plate 10 from the blower, which is a compressed gas supply source, through the gas supply pipe 12 is supplied to the gas outlets 11a, 11b provided in the cooling plate 10 for each radiation fin 5 of the radiation part to be cooled. , 11c. As can be seen from FIGS. 3 and 4, each gas outlet 11 has a groove 9 a and a hole 9 b between the fin elements 9 of the radiation fin 5.
And a plurality of circular holes 110 arranged in series for discharging the cooling gas G toward the cooling gas flow. The size of the holes 110 gradually increases from upstream to downstream of the cooling gas flow. . In this example, the diameter of the hole 110 increases in the order of the upstream gas outlet 11a, the intermediate gas outlet 11b, and the downstream gas outlet 11c. This means that the cooling gas G1, G2, G3 is given to the radiating fins 5 of the radiating portions 4 of all the heat pipes 2 with the same air volume,
This is for even spraying. Therefore, the gas outlet 11
The diameter of the holes 110 of the holes 11a, 11b and 11c can be changed depending on the distance between the gas outlets 11a, 11b and 11c.

The specific wind speed at which the gas is blown is determined by the cooling plate 10
Is 120 mm, the width d of the fin 5 is 16 mm, and the number of printed circuit boards is 15, the wind speed of the total sum is as follows.

5 (m / s) × (16 mm × 120 mm / 100
0000) × 60 minutes × 15 sheets = 8.64 m / min The arrangement shape of the plurality of holes 110 constituting each of the gas outlets 11 a, 11 b, 11 c matches the arrangement shape of the fin elements 9 of the radiation fins 5. , Vertical row, inclined row, curved row, etc.
Arranged in any shape. Each gas outlet 11a, 1
The shape of the holes 110 of 1b and 11c is a round hole here, but any shape such as a polygonal hole such as a rectangle or a slit can be used.

The gas outlets 11a, 1 of the cooling plate 10
1b, 11c, the cooling gas G1,
G2 and G3 indicate the sides of the radiating fins 5 attached to the radiating portion 4 of the heat pipe 2 located near the respective gas outlets in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG.
a, it passes in the direction in which the hole 9b extends, and efficiently dissipates heat from the heat radiating portion 4.

According to the above-described embodiment, since the cooling plate 10 having the gas outlet 11 on the contact surface is attached in close contact with each of the radiating fins 5, the radiating fins are different from the conventional cooling fan system. Distance D between the fan and the cooling fan
There is no need to take one. The thickness D3 of the cooling plate 10 having the gas outlet 11 is also smaller than the thickness D2 (50 mm) of the fan chassis in the conventional cooling fan system.
mm. For this reason, it is possible to obtain a cooling device for an electronic device that is smaller and has higher cooling efficiency than the conventional device.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the cooling gas is blown directly to the fins of the heat pipe radiating portion, so that there is no need to consider the fan characteristics as in the conventional cooling fan system. . Further, since the cooling plate having a gas outlet on the contact surface is configured to be attached in close contact with each fin of each heat pipe radiator,
There is no need to keep a certain distance or more between the radiating fins and the cooling fan as in the conventional cooling fan system, and a cooling device with a small size and high cooling efficiency can be configured accordingly,
Also, a cooling fan is not required. Further, the thickness of the cooling plate having the gas outlets can be smaller than the thickness of the fan chassis in the conventional cooling fan system, so that a cooling device smaller than the conventional one can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main part of an embodiment applied to a test head of an IC tester.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a main part of an embodiment applied to a test head of an IC tester.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of a cooling plate of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a heat radiation fin and a ventilation direction of a cooling gas according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a main part of a conventional cooling device.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a main part of a conventional cooling device.

FIG. 7 is an air volume distribution characteristic diagram of a conventional fan chassis.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printed circuit board 2 Heat pipe 4 Heat radiating part 5 Heat radiating fin 10 Cooling plate 12 Gas supply pipe

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A planar heat pipe mounted on a plurality of adjacent printed circuit boards so as to cover each printed circuit board, fins mounted on a heat radiating portion of each of the heat pipes, and closely attached to these fins. A cooling plate having a gas outlet on the contact surface, and a gas supply pipe communicating with the gas outlet of the cooling plate and supplying a cooling gas to the gas outlet. Consists of a plurality of holes, and the holes of the plurality of gas outlets are formed on the downstream side of the cooling gas flow.
A cooling device for electronic equipment, wherein the diameter of the cooling device is gradually increased according to the size of the cooling device.