JP4682858B2 - Cooling device for electronic equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cooling device having a heat exchanger having a structure suitable for cooling highly heat-generating electronic components in electronic equipment such as a small and high-performance information processing device.

  Semiconductor integrated circuits used in electronic devices are required to increase the processing speed due to an increase in the amount of information handled in the electronic devices, and high integration has been progressing rapidly with high-speed processing as a priority issue. Along with this, the amount of heat generated from the semiconductor is also increasing. On the other hand, heat generation in semiconductors is not only an obstacle to ensuring the performance of semiconductors when the temperature exceeds a predetermined temperature, but also causes problems that damage the semiconductor itself. It is an essential requirement. Therefore, development of a small and high-performance cooling system corresponding to miniaturization and high performance of the apparatus is expected.

  Therefore, in order to cool the increased heat generation amount, along with the development of the cooling method, a device for improving the cooling capacity in each cooling method has been made. For example, in an air cooling system in which cooling air is sent by a fan, the shape of the fan, an increase in the amount of cooling air by controlling the rotation speed, and a device for the air path are being worked on. In the system, the heat exchange efficiency is improved by improving the material and structure of the high heat conductivity of the heat exchange section and the heat transfer section, and controlling the heat transfer.

  On the other hand, electronic devices have been greatly developed from conventional business devices as small, high-performance portable and personal devices. For example, in the field of computer products, desktop-type personal computers (hereinafter referred to as PCs) and notebook-type PCs are easy-to-use products by speeding up the arithmetic processing of a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU). Although it has been realized, an increase in the amount of generated heat has become a problem.

  In recent years, as a cooling method for this PC, a liquid cooling system having an advantage in miniaturization and noise reduction in comparison with the cooling capacity has been favored and used. Patent document 1 is mentioned as an example of the notebook PC of this liquid cooling system. Also. Patent Document 2 is an example of a liquid cooling system for a desktop PC. Patent Document 2 also describes an example of a latent heat cooling system in which cooling is performed by using an evaporation and condensation action of a cooling liquid that can further improve the cooling performance as compared with the liquid cooling system. Furthermore, patent document 3 is mentioned as a circulation type of a latent heat cooling system.

JP 2004-139185 A JP 2004-116864 A JP 2004-326343 A

  The cooling system disclosed in Patent Document 1 is an example of a liquid cooling system corresponding to a thin structure of a notebook PC, and a radiator plate in which a flow path is formed over a wide area on the back surface of the display unit as a radiator. The liquid is circulated between the main body side arranged heat generating portion. Therefore, the heat radiating plate needs to be made of a metal material having a good heat radiating property in order to increase the heat radiating effect, which is an obstacle to weight reduction while being a portable device. Furthermore, in order to improve the cooling performance, it is necessary to enlarge the heat sink, but there is a limit to the increase in the heat sink area due to the shape of the device. There is no choice but to deal with the installation.

The cooling system disclosed in Patent Document 2 is a liquid cooling system mounted on a desktop PC. The heat radiator has a structure of a heat sink provided with fins, and is configured to blow cooling air toward the fins of the heat sink by a fan. In desktop PCs, because the restrictions on the location and installation space of the cooling system are smaller than those of notebook PCs, radiators formed in a flat or block shape with conventional piping and cooling fin configuration are used as the radiator. There are also examples. Further, in order to increase the heat dissipation effect, the radiator is mounted outside the apparatus so that the cooling air blown to the radiator is warmed and discharged outside the apparatus without circulating in the apparatus. Further, in order to control the flow of cooling air, a device such as installation of a duct that forms a cooling air passage in the apparatus has been devised. However, these are obstacles to downsizing of the apparatus.

  Furthermore, Patent Document 2 also describes a cooling system using a heat pipe system. The heat pipe method is superior to the cooling performance due to the heat of vaporization compared to the liquid cooling system in which heat is transported by the refrigerant liquid and cooled by the radiator, but the evaporation and condensation cycle is repeated in the same pipe in the heat pipe. Since the rising channel of the gas received and evaporated at the bottom of the heat pipe from the bottom and the return channel of the liquid cooled and condensed and refluxed at the top have a contact area in the heat pipe, it evaporates due to pressure loss etc.・ There may be problems that the circulation of the condensation cycle is hindered.

  In order to solve this problem, as described in Patent Document 3, a circulation type in which a flow path of evaporated gas and condensed liquid is separated and a vaporization / condensation cycle is performed in one direction by a pump. A latent heat cooling system has been developed.

The amount of heat generated by heat-generating components in electronic devices and the demand for smaller electronic devices are expected to increase. However, in the conventional cooling system, there is a contradictory situation of improving the cooling performance and downsizing the cooling device, and the cooling system for large servers, desktop PCs, and notebook PCs. The system must be equipped with a cooling system with a different method and structure.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the problem of optimizing a heat converter that improves the cooling performance in a conventional liquid cooling system, and can be mounted from a desktop PC to a notebook PC and a PC regardless of the form of the PC. It is to provide a cooling system having a small size and high cooling performance for equipment.

The above-described object relates to cooling of a heating element in an electronic device, and includes a first heat exchanger that has a flow path for a refrigerant liquid therein and receives heat by being connected to the heating element, and receives heat by the first heat exchanger. A second heat exchanger that cools the refrigerant liquid, a tank section that stores the refrigerant liquid that has flowed through the second heat exchanger, and a pump that drives the refrigerant liquid. The first and second heat exchangers are provided with a flow path through which a refrigerant liquid flows and are sealed with at least a frame body. The flow path through which the refrigerant liquid flows in one or both of the second heat exchanger and the second heat exchanger is formed on a heat exchange board configured to receive heat or dissipate heat and is formed of a material having good heat conductivity. and the flowing wall piece group launched from part integrally with the heat exchange substrate It is achieved than by being configured in a curved plane as acute angle portion is formed to the wall surface in each of the base portion of the wall plane of the formed parallel to the flow direction of the refrigerant liquid, and vent flow wall piece group .
Further, the refrigerant liquid is achieved by receiving heat by the first heat exchanger to be in a gas-liquid mixed state and being liquefied by the second heat exchanger.

  Also, the object is to form a second flow wall piece group on the heat exchange board on which the flow wall piece group is formed and an inner wall surface of the frame facing the heat exchange board, and to the heat exchange board. The flow path through which the refrigerant liquid flows by arranging the formed first flow wall piece group and the second flow wall piece group so as to face each other through the flow wall planes. This is achieved by having a configuration.

  Further, the above object is achieved by integrally forming cooling fins on a part of the outer wall surface of the heat exchange substrate or the frame constituting the heat exchanger.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the small and highly cooling performance cooling system for electronic devices which can be mounted irrespective of the form of a notebook type PC and PC from a desktop type PC can be provided.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a cooling device showing an embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a heating element used in an electronic device (not shown), 2 denotes a heat receiving member that has a flow path of a refrigerant liquid inside to contact the heating element 1 and cool the heating element 1, 4 Is a heat dissipating member having a flow path through which the refrigerant liquid flows to cool the refrigerant liquid, 5 is a tank integrally sealed with the heat dissipating member 4, and 6 is the heat receiving member 2 downstream of the heat dissipating member 4. A pump 7 disposed upstream and driving the refrigerant liquid flowing out of the tank 5 is connected to each member to form a circulation path for the refrigerant liquid.

Next, details of each member and the operation state of the cooling device will be described below.
An electronic device (not shown) does not relate to any specified device such as a server, a desktop PC, or a notebook PC.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration perspective view (partially perspective view) in the embodiment of the heat receiving member 2 of the present invention.
3 and 4 are cross-sectional views showing different embodiments regarding the configuration of the flow path of the heat receiving member 2.
As shown in FIG. 2, the heat receiving member 2 includes a frame body 21 and a heat receiving plate 25 that form a space portion for allowing the refrigerant liquid to flow therethrough and seal the space portion. One of the side portions is provided with a refrigerant liquid outlet 22a, and the other is provided with a refrigerant liquid inlet 22b. A pipe 7 for circulating the refrigerant liquid is connected to each of the outlet 22a and the inlet 22b. In the space inside the frame 21, a flow wall piece group 23, which is arranged substantially in parallel for diverting and flowing the refrigerant liquid, a flow wall piece group 23, an outlet 22 a, and an inlet 22 b. A heat receiving plate 25 configured to have a header 24a, 24b serving as a space for merging or diverting the refrigerant liquid between the inner walls of the side portions provided with the heat receiving plate 25 is joined and joined to form a sealed structure as the heat receiving member 2 Has been.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, in order to increase the contact area of the flow wall piece group 23 with the flowing refrigerant liquid, the wall plane arranged substantially in parallel is an intermediate portion in the thickness direction of the heat receiving member 2. It is formed in a curved shape. This is configured to increase the strength of the thin heat receiving member 2 while increasing the amount of heat conduction between the refrigerant liquid and the flow wall piece group 23. In addition, since it is preferable that this flow-through-wall piece group 23 is generally comprised with the same material as the board | plate material of the heat receiving board 25 with favorable heat conductivity, the cut-and-raised structure by cutting is made optimal. . However, there is no problem even if the flow path is formed by another structure.

On the other hand, the end portion of the cut and raised flow wall piece group 23 by cutting may vary in the curved state and the cut and raised length depending on the processing state, and the flow constituted by the cut and raised pieces from one direction. On the road, there may be a flow path bypass in which a gap is generated between the plane on the inner wall of the frame body 21 and the refrigerant liquid is short-circuited. In order to avoid the generation of this gap, post-processing work for aligning the height position after cutting is required. As a method of avoiding this problem, as shown in FIG. 4, a flow wall piece group 23 b formed on the inner wall upper surface facing the heat receiving surface of the frame body 21, and a flow wall piece group formed on the heat receiving plate 25. When the flow path is formed as a configuration in which the upper and lower portions are integrated with each other from the upper and lower sides, a short-circuited flow path bypass is not formed by the opposed flow wall pieces. Can be omitted.

  The heat receiving member 2 having this structure is a refrigerant liquid that allows heat generated in the heat generating member 1 to flow into the heat receiving member 2 by being thermally connected to the heat generating members 1 of a plurality of semiconductor components mounted on the electronic device. Heat is received with the phase change to the vapor refrigerant. Further, when the refrigerant liquid received from the heating element 1 becomes a vapor refrigerant, the vapor refrigerant rises to the upper flat surface portion of the inner wall of the frame 21 of the heat receiving member 2, so that the passage formed on the inner wall upper surface of the frame 21. The flow wall piece group 23b can also function as a cooling fin. Needless to say, the cooling effect of the flow wall piece group 23b becomes more effective by forming the heat radiation means outside the wall surface.

  Furthermore, when the flow wall piece group 23 is formed in a curved shape by cutting and raising, an acute angle portion is formed with respect to the wall surface at the root portion, and the liquid holding function by the surface tension of the liquid is increased. Therefore, the liquid depletion phenomenon due to the evaporation of the liquid is avoided, and stable and high-performance cooling is possible.

  The refrigerant liquid received by the heat receiving member 2 is driven and circulated by the pump 6. The drive pump 6 is preferably a positive displacement pump when driving a refrigerant liquid in a mixed state of a liquid refrigerant and a vapor refrigerant, but may be a centrifugal pump when driving a liquid refrigerant. Further, the mounting position of the drive pump 6 is generally arranged downstream of the heat radiating portion from the state of the circulated refrigerant liquid, but even if it is placed upstream of the heat radiating portion in consideration of the type of the drive pump. Good.

  The received refrigerant liquid flows into the heat radiating member 4 from the gas-liquid mixture inlet 43, and the cooling liquid cooled and vaporized while flowing through the flow path disposed inside the heat radiating member 4 becomes liquid refrigerant. Phase change.

FIG. 5 is a schematic external perspective view showing the tank 5 integrated with the heat radiating member 4.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a part of the frame of the heat radiating member.
In the figure, the heat radiating member 4 has a flow wall piece group 41 through which a coolant flows. A part of the outer surface of the heat radiating member 4 has a heat radiating fin 42. The flow wall piece group 41 and the heat radiation fins 42 may be formed by the cutting and raising process described in the heat receiving member 2 or may be a heat radiation pipe or the like by another conventional method. There is no problem. However, as the flow path of the heat radiating member 4 that performs the phase change to the liquid refrigerant by cooling the vapor refrigerant of the present invention, the fin-shaped flow path having a heat radiating effect is not hindered. It can be said that the flow wall piece group 41 of cut and raised pieces obtained by cutting the material has an optimum structure.

  Furthermore, a part of the outer surface of the heat radiating member 4 may be provided with a heat radiating fin for enhancing the heat radiating effect by cutting. The upper part of the heat dissipating member 4 and the lower part of the tank 5 are divided by a partition plate 43 having a through-hole 43a through which the coolant can flow, but it is necessary to be a partition plate for separating the liquid layer and the vapor layer. Absent. Further, on the surface of the partition plate 43 on the heat radiating portion side, a flow wall piece group (fin) that comes into contact with the vapor refrigerant is formed, and the casing of the tank 5 can be used as an action of the heat radiating plate for heat radiation. Is possible. In order to improve the cooling performance by the heat radiating fin formed on the outer surface of the heat radiating member 4, a configuration in which air is blown by the fan toward the heat radiating fin is an easily assumed method.

  Next, a refrigerant liquid inflow port 43 is provided on one side wall surface of the heat radiating member 4 disposed on the upper portion of the tank portion integrated with the heat radiating member, and the tank 5 is provided on one side wall of the lower tank 5. An outlet 51 is provided for flowing out the refrigerant liquid. With this configuration, the refrigerant liquid cooled by the heat radiating member 4 is temporarily stored as a liquid refrigerant in the tank 5 and circulated from the outlet 51, so that it is disposed downstream of the tank 5 and upstream of the heat receiving member 2. The refrigerant liquid is driven by the pump 6.

  The pump 6 sends the radiated refrigerant liquid to the heat receiving member 2 and the heat receiving member 2 receives the heat of the heating element 1 again. In order to repeat these cycles, each member is hermetically connected by piping so that the refrigerant liquid can be circulated.

  According to the present invention, the flow wall piece group provided inside the heat exchanger is configured to have a thin shape made of a material having good heat conductivity and a shape that increases the contact area with the refrigerant liquid, so that the heat conductivity of the refrigerant is improved. Improvement is achieved. In addition, regarding the irregular shape by the processing method of the flow wall piece group, it is possible to form a bypass by forming a flow path by incorporating the two flow wall piece groups into each other and opposingly arranging them. A flow path can be configured. Furthermore, the cooling performance can be further improved by using a heat exchanger in which cooling fins using the same conductive material are formed. Circulating refrigerant liquid in a gas-liquid mixture by realizing a high-performance heat exchanger with cooling liquid fins and cooling fins that make use of the ease of processing into the same material in consideration of thermal conductivity Therefore, since a suitable cooling device can be easily provided in a small size, it can be mounted on various types of electronic devices.

It is a block diagram which shows the cooling device of this invention. It is a schematic structure perspective view of the Example of the heat receiving member in this invention. It is sectional drawing of one Embodiment of the heat receiving member in this invention. It is sectional drawing of other embodiment of the heat receiving member in this invention. It is a schematic perspective view of the Example of the heat radiating member in this invention. It is a schematic perspective view of the heat radiating flow path and the heat radiating fin provided in the heat radiating member in the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Heat generating body, 2 ... Heat receiving member, 4 ... Heat radiating member, 5 ... Tank, 6 ... Pump, 7 ... Piping.

Claims (4)

Regarding cooling of a heating element in an electronic device, a first heat exchanger having a flow path of a refrigerant liquid therein and receiving heat by being connected to the heating element, and a refrigerant liquid received by the first heat exchanger A second heat exchanger for cooling, a tank section for storing the refrigerant liquid flowing through the second heat exchanger, and a pump for driving the refrigerant liquid, the first heat exchanger; In the cooling device in which the second heat exchanger, the tank unit, and the pump are connected by piping to form a circulation flow path,
The first and second heat exchangers are provided with a flow path through which the refrigerant liquid flows and are sealed with at least a frame, and at least the flow through which the refrigerant liquid flows in the first heat exchanger. The path is a heat exchange board configured to receive heat or dissipate heat composed of a material having good heat conductivity, and a flow wall piece group raised from the flat portion of the heat exchange board is integrated with the heat exchange board , An electron characterized in that it is formed in parallel with the flow direction of the refrigerant liquid , and each of the wall planes of the flow wall piece group is formed in a curved plane so that an acute angle portion is formed with respect to the wall surface at the root portion. Cooling device for equipment. In the cooling device for electronic devices according to claim 1,
The cooling device for electronic equipment, wherein the refrigerant liquid is received by the first heat exchanger to be in a gas-liquid mixed state and is liquefied by the second heat exchanger. In the cooling device for electronic devices in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 2,
In the first heat exchanger, a second flow wall piece group is formed on the heat exchange substrate that forms the flow wall piece group and an inner wall surface of the frame that faces the heat exchange substrate, The first flow wall piece group formed on the heat exchange substrate and the second flow wall piece group are arranged so as to face each other through the flow wall planes, and the refrigerant liquid is flowed therethrough. A cooling apparatus for electronic equipment, characterized in that the flow path is configured. In the cooling device for electronic devices in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3,
A cooling apparatus for electronic equipment, wherein a cooling fin is integrally formed on a part of an outer wall surface of the heat exchange substrate or the frame body constituting the second heat exchanger.

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