JPH04137063U - Cooling device for power converter equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] The purpose of the present invention is to cool the heat generated by semiconductor elements constituting a power converter using cooling fins using heat pipes. An object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device for a power converter that can improve the cooling efficiency of cooling fins and improve the space factor of the power converter in a cooling device for a power converter in which a semiconductor element is mounted and cooled. [Structure] In order to cool the heat generated by the semiconductor elements that make up the power converter using cooling fins using heat pipes, cooling of the power converter is performed by attaching multiple semiconductor elements to one cooling fin. A cooling device for a power conversion device, characterized in that the cooling fin is attached so that the heat pipe of the cooling fin is at a predetermined angle of about 30° to 5° from a horizontal plane.

Description

[Detailed explanation of the idea]

[Purpose of invention]

0001

[Industrial application field]

This invention uses a heat pipe to transfer the heat generated by the semiconductor elements that make up the power conversion device. Improved cooling efficiency of cooling fins in cooling devices that use cooling fins. of power converters that can improve the space factor of power converters by Regarding a cooling device.

0002

[Conventional technology]

Various techniques are known as prior art related to the present invention, such as electrical engineering. Society magazine VOL. 111, No. 1, 1991, P37-P41. These subordinates With the new technology, when heat pipes are used to cool semiconductor devices, cooling fins can be It is clear that cooling efficiency can be improved. This section focuses on the technical points of the conventional technology.

0003 Figure 4 is a configuration diagram of a cooling fin using a conventional heat pipe, and Figure 4 (A) is a front view. Figure 4(B) is a side view, and Figure 5 is a heat pipe for explaining the action of Figure 4. FIG. In FIG. 4, 10 is a cooling fin, 11 is a heat pipe, 12 is a semiconductor element, 13 is a block part of a cooling fin, and 14 is a heat radiation part of a cooling fin. It is. In this figure, multiple semiconductor elements 12 generate heat due to operation of the power converter. Then, this generated heat is transmitted to the block part 13 of the cooling fin 10, and from here Heat is transported by the heat pipe 11, and cooled by the heat radiation part 14 of the cooling fin 10. is cooled and radiates heat. Cooling the plurality of semiconductor elements 12 in this way Heat transport by the heat pipe 11 of the cooling fin 10 will be explained with reference to FIG.

0004 In FIG. 5, 111 is the pipe of the heat pipe 11, 112 is the operating fluid, and 113 is the pipe of the heat pipe 11. is the evaporation surface of the working fluid 112. Heat of the cooling fins 10 configured as shown in FIG. The pipe 11 reduces the pressure inside the pipe 111, and the water injected into it operates. The liquid 112 is heated by the heat P1 generated in the semiconductor element 12, and the working liquid 112 is vaporized. The heat P2 is evaporated from the emission surface 113, transported as shown by the arrow in the figure, and radiated to the heat radiating section 14. When heated, the working fluid 112 changes from vapor to liquid again and returns as shown by the arrow.

[0005] In the conventional cooling device using the heat pipe 11 that operates as described above, the cooling The number of semiconductor elements 12 cooled by the cooling fins 10 is generally one, and it does not generate heat. If the semiconductor element 12 is mounted near the evaporation surface 113 of the working fluid 112, efficient Heat transfer was achieved. This is heat transfer due to convection inside the working fluid 112, and this is caused by evaporation. Since the heat transfer is by evaporation in the case of 113, the heat transfer by evaporation is efficient. It is.

[0006]

[Problem that the idea aims to solve]

When there are a plurality of semiconductor elements 12 that generate heat, the cooling fins 10 are blocked as shown in FIG. The cooling fins 10 are installed inside the power converter so that the upper side of the section 13 becomes the heat radiation section 14. When installed, the following problems occurred.

[0007] (1) The evaporation surface 113 of the heat pipe 11 of the cooling fin 10 has multiple semiconductor elements 12. Because of the number of semiconductor devices, the evaporation surface 113 can only be provided in a specific portion of the semiconductor device 12. child Therefore, due to the difference in heat transfer between the plurality of semiconductor elements 12 up to the evaporation surface 113, Cooling efficiency is different. As a result, the temperature of the block portion 13 of the cooling fin 10 is not uniform. Therefore, when the number of semiconductor elements 12 to be attached at the same time increases, the block of the cooling fins 10 increases. This tendency becomes worse as the size of the hollow portion 13 also increases.

[0008] If the temperature difference occurring in each part of the lock part 13 of the cooling fin 10 is large in this way, The current that can flow through the semiconductor element 12 also varies depending on the semiconductor element 12 installed at the highest temperature location. It is uneconomical because the full capacity of the semiconductor element 12 cannot flow. Ru.

[0009] (2) When installing the cooling fin 10 with the semiconductor element 12 attached to the power converter, Mounted on the front side so that the heat dissipation part 14 of the cooling fin 10 can be inspected from the front side with the heat dissipation part 14 on the top. If the front side of the power converter is Always get bigger.

0010 Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art mentioned above. It improves the cooling efficiency of cooling fins and saves space for power converters. An object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device for a power converter that can improve the performance of a power converter. [Structure of the idea]

[0011]

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has developed a system in which the semiconductor elements constituting the power One cooling fin uses a heat pipe to cool the generated heat. In a cooling device for a power converter that cools multiple semiconductor devices mounted on a The heat pipe of the cooling fin is set at a predetermined angle of about 30° to 5° from the horizontal plane. It is characterized in that the cooling fins are attached so as to become.

0012

[Effect]

When the cooling fins are installed with a predetermined slope as described above, the working fluid 112 is When it returns as a liquid rather than a vapor, it is difficult to return due to the influence of gravity, but the diameter is more than 10 mm. The evaporation surface 113 of the meter-sized heat pipe 11 expands, and the heat transport efficiency increases. Since the evaporation surface 113 extends beyond the diameter of the heat pipe, the block of the cooling fin 10 The temperature of the tank 13 also has less variation. The temperature of the block portion 13 of the cooling fin 10 When the temperature variation is reduced, the semiconductor device 12 attached to the cooling fin 10 is The current obtained can now flow as much as the temperature variation has been reduced, making it an economical current. It becomes a force conversion device.

[0013] Also, the cooling fins 10 installed at a predetermined inclination should be placed with the block portion 13 side facing the front. The space seen from the front side with the heat dissipation section 14 as the rear surface is similar to the conventional heat dissipation section 14 as the top. This is significantly reduced compared to other installations. Therefore, the space seen from the front of the power converter - The power conversion factor has been significantly improved, and the more the equipment can be inspected from the front, the more The device can be made smaller.

[0014]

【Example】

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. In Figure 1, θ is the horizontal plane The mounting angle of the cooling fins 10 relative to the angle shown in FIG. The components have the same function. Also, FIG. 2 explains the operation of the heat pipe 11 in FIG. FIG.

[0015] As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of semiconductor devices are attached to the block portion 13 of the cooling fin 10. As shown in FIG. 2, heat P3 generated by these semiconductor elements 12 is transferred from several places to the pipe 1 The working liquid 112 in the cooling fin 11 is heated, and the working liquid evaporates from the evaporation surface 113, causing the cooling fin to cool. The heat pipe 11 transports and radiates heat to the heat radiating section 114 of 10.

[0016] When the heat pipe 11 is installed at an angle θ with respect to the horizontal plane as shown in Fig. The evaporation surface 113 in FIG. 2 is approximately 1/sinθ times or more larger than the evaporation surface 113 in FIG. It will be above. Therefore, in FIG. 2, the evaporation surface 113 expands and blocks the cooling fins 10. Even if the portion 13 is heated by a plurality of semiconductor elements 12, the evaporation rate is higher than that of the semiconductor elements 12. The distance to the emitting surface 113 is shortened, and temperature variations in the block portion 13 are reduced. In this way, when the temperature variation in the block part 13 is reduced, the The conductive element 12 can now uniformly flow current, resulting in an economically large current. can be traced. When the cooling of the cooling fins 10 becomes more efficient in this way, the maximum In the case of IGBTs and MOS-FETs, which are often used in various fields, semiconductor The power loss of the body element 12 depends on the temperature of the block portion 13 of the cooling fin 10. Since the temperature varies greatly, it is important to reduce the temperature variation in the block portion 13. By also reducing the heat generated by the element 12, the current that can be passed is further increased. It turns out.

[0017] FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a power conversion device according to the present invention. Depending on the angle θ in Figure 1, the electric current When the cooling fins 10 are installed in the force transducer, the installation height is as shown in the conventional method shown in FIG. It is much more economical to install it at an angle θ than to install it vertically inside the power converter. can. In other words, if the height dimension of the cooling fin is L and it is installed at an angle θ, the installation The mounting height dimension H is H=L・Sinθ, and when mounted at an angle of 30 degrees, the height dimension The method can be reduced to about 1/2.

[0018] The inclination angle θ with respect to the horizontal plane is such that the working liquid 12 in the heat pipe 11 is more liquid than vapor. Based on the flow after returning to normal state, we have experimentally determined that the larger the angle θ is, the greater the cooling The cooling capacity of the tube 10 is good. On the other hand, from the perspective of space factor, the smaller the angle θ, the better It is obvious that the angle θ is in the range of about 30 degrees to about 5 degrees. It has been experimentally discovered that.

[0019] As described above, the heat pipe 11 of the cooling fin 10 is installed at a predetermined angle θ from the horizontal plane. If attached, temperature variations in the block portion 13 of the cooling fin 10 will be reduced and The losses generated by several semiconductor elements 12 also decrease for the same current, and the losses in each half A uniform current can now be passed through the conductor element 12, and the current can be passed through the semiconductor element 12. It can be used economically. Furthermore, the cooling fins 10 are installed in the power converter at a predetermined angle θ. The space factor seen from the front side has been significantly improved compared to the conventional one, and For power conversion equipment that requires maintenance, make effective use of the space in the depth direction. It is possible to downsize the device.

[0020] In addition, in this invention, the shape of the cooling fin 10 and the heat used for the cooling fin 10 are The same effect can be obtained even if the number of pipes 11 is different, so the shape and number of pipes are It is not limited to. Further, a semiconductor to be attached to the block portion 13 of the cooling fin 10 The number of semiconductor elements 12 is not limited, and when the number of semiconductor elements 12 increases, Even more effective. Other things that can be implemented in various ways without changing the gist of the invention It is.

[0021]

[Effect of the idea] As explained above, according to the present invention, a plurality of semiconductors are provided in the block portion of the cooling fin. When installing a cooling fin with a heat element attached inside a power converter, the heat pipe may be exposed to water. By installing it at an angle in the range of 30 degrees to 5 degrees with respect to the plane, You can get the following effects.

[0022] (1) Reduces temperature variations in the cooling fin block, making it easier to handle multiple semiconductor devices. This allows the current to flow uniformly and reduces power loss. Can be used economically.

[0023] (2) If the power conversion equipment requires inspection from the front side, the As a result of installing cooling fins, the space factor from the front is improved and power conversion The device can be made smaller. These effects improve the cooling efficiency of the cooling fins, resulting in low power loss and high efficiency. Therefore, it is possible to realize an economical power conversion device that can be downsized.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a cooling fin showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the heat pipe used in the cooling fin of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a power conversion device using cooling fins according to the present invention, in which (A) is a front view and (B) is a side view.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a conventional cooling fin; (A) is a front view;
(B) is a side view.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of a conventional cooling fin.

[Explanation of symbols]

10...Cooling fins 11...Heat pipe 12...Semiconductor element 13...Cooling fin block part 14...Heat radiation part 111...pipe 112...Operating fluid 113...Evaporation surface

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] Claim 1: A power conversion device in which a plurality of semiconductor devices are attached to one cooling fin for cooling, in order to cool the heat generated by the semiconductor devices constituting the power conversion device using cooling fins using heat pipes. In this cooling device, the heat pipe of the cooling fin is located at an angle of about 30° to 5° from the horizontal plane.
A cooling device for a power conversion device, characterized in that the cooling fins are attached at a predetermined angle.