JPH0727495A - Heat exchanger - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a heat exchanger which can be manufactured compact and light-weighted at a low cost. CONSTITUTION:A heat exchanger is formed of a flow passage 11d formed on an upper surface of a lower plate 11 to connect an inlet 11e and an outlet 11f which open on side end surfaces of the lower plate 11 and an upper plate 12 fixed on the upper surface of the lower plate 11 to cover the flow passage 11d, so that heat exchanging medium which flows in through the inlet 11e flows through the flow passage 11d and flows out of the outlet 11f. Accordingly, the upper and lower plates 11 and 12 can easily be formed in accordance with a shape of an object with which heat exchange is carried out, and further, the flow passage 11d through which the heat exchanging medium flows can be shaped in a desired form. By this, a heat exchanger of a high heat exchanging efficiency can be manufactured compact and light-weighted at a low cost.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heat exchanger, and more particularly to a small heat exchanger.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In various electronic circuits using integrated circuits such as ICs, heat generated when the ICs are driven prevents the circuit error and also prevents the deterioration of each electronic component. Alternatively, it is necessary to cool each electronic component. For this reason, conventionally, there has been a method of cooling by applying air to the entire electronic circuit, for example, by providing a fan in a case accommodating the electronic circuit. Here, as a method of efficiently cooling, a method of cooling by contacting a heat exchanger with the whole circuit or a part of the circuit is considered.

The structure of such a heat exchanger is such that one pipe is bent into a bellows shape and the pipe is attached to the heating element directly or through a plate or the like holding the pipe. There is something. In such a heat exchanger, the heat generating element is cooled by flowing a heat exchange medium in the pipe.

[0004]

However, in the above heat exchanger, the thickness of the pipe cannot be made too thin in consideration of ensuring the flow rate of the heat exchange medium and the strength of the pipe. In addition, it takes time to bend the pipe, which leads to an increase in manufacturing cost, and even when the pipe is bent, the bending pitch cannot be made very fine, and the heat exchanger itself becomes large. However, the weight also increases, and it is difficult to manufacture a small heat exchanger. For this reason, even if the electronic circuit is reduced in size and weight, the accompanying heat exchanger is increased in size, which may cause a problem that it is difficult to reduce the size and weight of the device incorporating the electronic circuit.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a heat exchanger which can be manufactured in a small size and a light weight and can be manufactured at a low cost.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, in a heat exchanger according to the present invention, a lower plate and a lower plate are connected so as to connect an inlet and an outlet opened at a side end surface of the lower plate. Consists of a single flow path formed on the upper surface of the lower plate and an upper plate fixed to the upper surface of the lower plate so as to cover the flow path, so that the heat exchange medium flowing from the inlet flows through the flow path and flows out from the outlet. Is configured.

[0007]

In such a heat exchanger, the flow path through which the heat exchange medium flows is formed in the lower plate, and the area and pitch of the flow path can be arbitrarily determined at the time of formation. Therefore, the weight can be reduced.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, a heat exchanger according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The heat exchanger 10 is composed of a lower plate 11 and an upper plate 12. Each of these plates 1
Reference numerals 1 and 12 are formed of a synthetic resin film, and the upper plate 12 is formed of one film, while the lower plate 11 is formed by laminating two films.

The lower plate 11 is the base plate 11
Intermediate plates 11a and 11b are fixedly formed on the upper surface of c. The intermediate plate is composed of an E-shaped first intermediate plate 11a and a U-shaped second intermediate plate 11b. The first intermediate plate 11a and the second intermediate plate 11b are formed so that the respective concave and convex portions engage with each other with a constant interval, and this interval serves as a flow path 11d for the heat exchange medium, the details of which will be described later.

Here, as a method of manufacturing the intermediate plates 11a and 11b, one intermediate plate is punched out by press molding, and the first intermediate plate 11a, the second intermediate plate 11b, and the portion corresponding to the flow path 11d are three sheets. The first intermediate plate 11a and the second intermediate plate 11a.
It suffices to use only the intermediate plate 11b. As another method, the flow path 11d of one intermediate plate is used.
Alternatively, the first intermediate plate 11a and the second intermediate plate 11b may be manufactured by etching the portions corresponding to.

The intermediate plate 11 manufactured as described above
The a and 11b are adhered to the base plate 11c by adhering them with an adhesive or by heating. And the flow path 11d
The upper plate is similarly fixed to the upper surfaces of the intermediate plates 11a and 11b so as to cover the upper plate. As a result, the openings 11e and 11f are formed on the side end faces of the intermediate portions of the three stacked plates, and the single flow path 11d that connects these openings 11e (inlet) and 11f (outlet) is formed. The heat exchanger 10 thus formed is configured.

In the opening portions 11e and 11f formed on the side end surfaces of the heat exchanger 10 thus constructed, the distribution pipes 13 are formed so that their tips fit into these opening portions.
14 is inserted and fixed with an adhesive or the like. Then, a heat exchange medium such as cooling air is introduced into the distribution pipe 13 by a separately provided pump (not shown). The inflowing cooling air flows in from the inflow port 11e of the heat exchanger 10, flows through the flow path 11d formed in the heat exchanger 10, and flows out of the outflow port 11f.
And flows out to the outflow pipe 14. As a result, the upper plate 12 and the lower plate 11 of the heat exchanger 10 are
Heat is exchanged between the heating element in contact with c and the cooling air,
The heating element will be cooled.

Here, a method for cooling the heating element using the heat exchanger configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. First, a case of cooling the single IC mounted on the electronic circuit (printed circuit board) 70 in FIG. 2 will be described. The IC 50 is cooled by a heat exchange device including a cooling heat exchanger 20 and a heat radiation heat exchanger 60. Here, in the case of cooling the IC 50, first, the cooling heat exchanger 20 is formed in a plane dimension equivalent to that of the IC 50 to be cooled. here,
In order to efficiently exchange heat between the IC 50 and the cooling air,
For the lower plate 21c, a film having a lower surface coated with copper 25 is used. Then, the coated surface of the copper 25 is placed so as to be located on the upper surface of the IC 50, and the cooling air is introduced from the inflow pipe 23. Then, while the cooling air flows through the flow path 21d formed by meandering inside the cooling heat exchanger 20, heat is exchanged with the heat generating IC 50,
The cooling air whose temperature has risen flows out from the outflow pipe 24.

The inflow and outflow of the cooling air is performed by the pump 61 provided in the heat radiating heat exchanger 60. The cooling air discharged by the pump 61 passes through the cooling heat exchanger 20 as shown by arrow A, and flows into the heat radiating heat exchanger 60 through the outflow pipe 24 as shown by arrow B. The inflowing cooling air passes through a flow path (not shown) provided so as to pass through the outer circumference of the slit 60a provided in the heat dissipation heat exchanger 60, and then flows into the pump 61 again as shown by an arrow C. Here, the cooling air flowing in the heat radiation heat exchanger 60 is cooled by the action of the fan 62 mounted in proximity to the heat radiation heat exchanger 60. The fan 62 is provided so as to suck in air from the side where the heat radiation heat exchanger 60 is located during operation. As a result, when the fan 62 operates, air is sucked in from the outer periphery of the heat dissipation heat exchanger 60 as indicated by arrow D, and heat is exchanged with the cooling air flowing through the heat dissipation heat exchanger 60 when passing through the slits 60a. And exhausted as indicated by arrow E.

Therefore, the heat exchanging device having the above-described structure can efficiently cool a small electronic component such as the IC 50 by itself. Here, the heat exchanger 20
Is formed by laminating two plates (three films) as described above, and is formed to have the same plane size as the plane size of the IC to be cooled, so that the electronic circuit becomes large. It is possible to cool the IC without the need.

A case of cooling the entire printed circuit board constituting the electronic circuit will be described with reference to FIG. The heat exchanger 30 is formed by the upper and lower two plates as described above, but the upper surface of the upper plate 32 is coated with copper 35. This copper 35 is formed into an electronic circuit by etching, and an electronic component 50 such as an IC is placed in accordance with the formed circuit and fixed by soldering. Then, when the cooling liquid flows in from the inflow pipe 33, the flow passage 31 formed inside the heat exchanger 30.
By flowing the cooling air through d, the entire electronic circuit can be cooled. Even in this case, the heat exchanger 3
The plane dimension of 0 may be the same as the plane dimension of the printed circuit board originally required, and since the thickness of the lower plate only increases, the entire electronic circuit can be cooled without increasing its size. Can be done easily.

Next, a heat exchanger according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The heat exchanger 40 includes a lower plate 41 and an upper plate 42.
It consists of Here, as the lower plate 41, a resin film formed to be thicker than a film forming the base plate 11c and the like of the lower plate 11 according to the first embodiment is used. Then, by pressing or etching, a concave flow port 41d is formed on the upper surface of the lower plate 41, and an inflow port 41e and an outflow port 41f are formed on the side end faces. The upper plate 41 is fixed to the upper surface of the lower plate 41 formed in this way as in the case of the first embodiment, and the inflow pipe 43 and the outflow pipe 44 are fixed to the side end surfaces.
Then, by inflowing the heat exchange medium from the inflow pipe 43, a small heat exchanger similar to the heat exchanger according to the first embodiment can be obtained.

As described above, according to the heat exchangers according to the first and second embodiments, it is possible to freely increase or decrease the number of flow paths per unit area. Therefore, it is possible to cool minute parts such as ICs. Even when it is performed, it is possible to obtain the heat exchanger that can sufficiently secure the flow path of the cooling air necessary for cooling. Further, since it is formed by laminating resin films, it is possible to suppress the increase in the thickness of the entire electronic circuit and achieve cooling. Furthermore, by forming the body of the heat exchanger using a resin film, it is possible to freely transform the heat exchange target according to the curved surface as well as the flat surface. Therefore, the range of the object for heat exchange can be expanded.

In the above embodiment, the heat exchanger is formed of a resin film, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a metal plate or the like may be used. May be. Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the cooling air is introduced to cool the electronic component or the electronic component has been described, but the application of the present invention is not limited to this, and other heat exchange such as a cooling liquid is performed. A medium may be used. Further, the present invention is not limited to the cooling of electronic parts and can be used in a wide range of applications. In particular, the present heat exchanger can be manufactured in a small size and a light weight, and is therefore effective in exchanging heat of a small object. Furthermore, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case of cooling the object brought into contact with the present heat exchanger has been described, but it is needless to say that it can be used for heating.

[0020]

In the heat exchanger as described above, one flow path is formed on the upper surface of the lower plate so as to connect the inlet and the outlet opening on the side end surface of the lower plate and the upper surface of the lower plate. It is composed of an upper plate fixedly covering the flow passage, and is configured so that the heat exchange medium flowing from the inlet flows through the flow passage and flows out from the outlet. Therefore, the shapes of the upper and lower plates can be freely formed according to the shape of the object to be heat-exchanged, and the flow passages for the heat exchange medium can also be freely formed. Further, the heat exchanger can be formed to have a small thickness by stacking film-shaped plates. As a result, a heat exchanger capable of efficiently exchanging heat can be manufactured in a small size, a light weight, and a low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a heat exchanger according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a heat exchange device that cools an IC using the heat exchanger.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a case where an electronic circuit is cooled using the heat exchanger.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a heat exchanger according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 20, 30, 40, 60 Heat exchanger 12, 32, 42 Upper plate 11, 41 Lower plate 11d, 21d, 31d, 41d Flow path 13, 23, 33, 43 Inflow pipe 14, 24, 44 Outflow pipe

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A lower plate, a single channel formed on an upper surface of the lower plate so as to connect an inlet and an outlet opening at a side end surface of the lower plate, and the channel on the upper surface of the lower plate. A heat exchanger comprising an upper plate fixed to cover the above, wherein the heat exchange medium that has flowed in through the inlet flows through the flow path and flows out through the outlet.