JPH0888491A - Electronic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an electronic apparatus in which the high density mounting of an electronic component can be realized, and reduction in size, high performance and multi-functions can be provided. CONSTITUTION: The electronic apparatus comprises an electronic apparatus body 1 having a heat radiating terminal on an outer surface and means for guiding heat generated therein to the terminal, and an evaporation type radiator 2 detachably provided at the body 1 and having a refrigerant holding part for holding liquid refrigerant and evaporating it and thermally conducting with the holding part at the outer surface and having a heat absorbing terminal thermally connected to a heat radiating terminal when mounted on the body 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic device which can be miniaturized, improved in performance and multifunctional.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to improve the performance and multifunction of electronic equipment, for example, portable electronic equipment, it is necessary to mount electronic parts having high ability to realize these functions.
In this case, high density mounting is inevitably a condition for satisfying the portable condition.

By the way, when electronic parts are mounted at high density, the amount of heat generated per unit volume of the mounting part increases. Therefore, it is necessary to absorb this heat generation by some means and maintain each electronic component within the allowable temperature range. In conventional electronic devices, heat is exclusively radiated by natural air cooling, that is, natural convection utilizing the surface of the housing of the electronic device.
The natural convection method has the advantages that it does not cause noise or vibration and does not require maintenance, but it has a height of 30 cm, a width of 20 cm, and a thickness shown in Fig. 7.
As shown in the example of a 3 cm A4 size housing, when the difference ΔT from the outside air temperature is small, the amount of heat that can be dissipated is extremely small. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to cool an electronic device in which electronic components are mounted at high density by a natural convection method.

Therefore, it is conceivable to use forced air cooling, conductive liquid cooling, or immersion cooling. However, forced air cooling has the drawback of noise and vibration due to the use of a fan, and conductive liquid cooling or immersion cooling has a drawback. Not only is the structure of the product complicated, but maintenance is complicated.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional electronic equipment, since the amount of heat that can be dissipated is extremely small, it is difficult to make the equipment compact and multifunctional, and cooling is accompanied by noise and vibration. However, there are problems such as a complicated cooling structure and complicated maintenance of the cooling system. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device that can solve the above-mentioned problems and can achieve miniaturization, high performance, and multi-functionality.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic device according to the present invention is an electronic device provided with a heat dissipation terminal on an outer surface portion and a means for guiding internally generated heat to the heat dissipation terminal. The device main body and the electronic device main body has a refrigerant holding portion that is detachably provided to the electronic equipment main body and that holds and evaporates the liquid refrigerant, and the outer surface portion is in thermal communication with the refrigerant holding portion, and It is characterized by comprising an evaporative radiator having a heat absorbing terminal that is thermally connected to the heat radiating terminal when mounted on the electronic equipment body. In addition, it is preferable that the refrigerant holding portion uses a porous body or fibers to hold the liquid refrigerant.

[0007]

The heat generated by the electronic component mounted on the electronic device body is transferred to the heat dissipation terminal provided on the outer surface of the electronic device body, and then transferred to the refrigerant holding portion via the heat absorption terminal of the radiator. Since the liquid refrigerant is held in the refrigerant holding portion, the heat transferred to the refrigerant holding portion is consumed as energy for evaporating the liquid refrigerant. Therefore, the electronic components mounted on the electronic device body are cooled by the latent heat of vaporization of the liquid refrigerant.

In this case, since the heat is absorbed by the phase change, a large amount of heat can be absorbed / dissipated by a small radiator. Therefore, without increasing the overall size,
High-density mounting of electronic components can be realized, which contributes to miniaturization, high performance, and multi-functionalization.

Further, since the evaporation type radiator is used,
Not only does it generate noise and vibration, but the structure is simple,
The addition of this radiator does not increase the overall price. Further, since the evaporation type radiator can be attached to and detached from the main body of the electronic device, the maintenance can be facilitated. That is, in the evaporative radiator, if the entire liquid refrigerant evaporates, the function as a radiator will not be fulfilled, so it is indispensable to replenish the liquid refrigerant. Can be done at. It should be noted that if a liquid-refrigerant is used to hold the liquid refrigerant in the refrigerant holding portion, good cooling characteristics can be exhibited regardless of the posture of use of the electronic device body.

[0010]

Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. This electronic device is portable and includes an electronic device body 1 and an evaporative radiator 2 that is detachably attached to the electronic device body 1. In this example, a battery case 3 accommodating a battery serving as a power source of the electronic device body 1 is attached to an end of the radiator 2, and the battery case 3 and the radiator 2 are integrated together. It is removable with respect to.

The electronic device main body 1 is formed so that the size of the housing 11 can be carried with one hand, and high-capacity electronic parts having a desired function are mounted inside the housing 11 with high density. It has become a thing. A display unit 12 is provided on the upper surface of the display unit 12 so that a window can be opened as needed to simultaneously display a plurality of types of information.
A display area 13 for displaying the current liquid amount and the battery capacity of the liquid refrigerant in the radiator 2, which will be described later, is provided in a part of 2. Further, a heat radiating terminal (not shown) formed of a good heat conductive material such as copper or aluminum is provided in an exposed state on the end surface of the case 11 located above in the figure.
A heat conduction path (not shown) for guiding the heat generated by the mounted electronic component to the heat dissipation terminal is provided therein.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the radiator 2 is an elongated container 21 made of a good heat conductive material such as copper or aluminum, and a resin provided so as to cover the outer surface of the container 21. And a makeup container 22 made of. A plurality of heat conductors 23 made of a good heat conductive material are fixed to the inner surface of the container 21, and between the heat conductors and between the heat conductor 23 and the inner surface of the container 21 at the center of the container 21. A liquid refrigerant holding material 25 made of a porous material or fibers is attached so that the space 24 is formed.

The side surface of the container 21 has one surface on one side.
Of the heat absorbing terminal 26 formed of a good heat conductive material so that the other surface side is exposed and penetrates the makeup container 22.
Is provided. Further, on the same surface as the surface on which the heat absorbing terminal 26 is provided, the liquid refrigerant inlet 2 for allowing the liquid refrigerant holding member 25 to soak water or alcohol as the liquid refrigerant.
7 is provided so as to integrally penetrate the container 21 and the makeup container 22.

Further, a steam discharge hole 28 for guiding the steam accumulated in the space 24 to the outside is formed at the center of one end in the longitudinal direction of the container 21 and the makeup container 22. At a position facing the steam discharge hole 28, a protection plate 29 for receiving a steam flow with a predetermined gap provided between the steam discharge hole 28 and the steam discharge hole 28 is attached via a support leg 30. A porous material 31 for absorbing the condensed droplets and preventing the droplets from dropping is provided on the inner side of 29 and the end surface of the makeup container 22 facing the inner side of 29. Further, on the side surface of the cosmetic container 22 where the heat absorbing terminal 26 is located, a mounting tool 32 that is used when mounting to the electronic device body 1 is provided.

The heat absorbing terminal 26 and the liquid refrigerant inlet 27 described above are attached to the radiator 2 by using a mounting tool 32 as shown in FIG.
When attached to the electronic device body 1 as shown in FIG. 3, the heat absorbing terminal 26 is in thermal contact with the heat dissipation terminal provided on the electronic device body 1, and the liquid refrigerant inlet 27 is completely hidden. It is provided.

On the other hand, the battery case 3 is provided with a mounting tool 32 similar to the above and a power supply terminal 33.
With such a configuration, the heat generated in the electronic component mounted in the electronic device body 1 is transferred to the heat dissipation terminal provided in the electronic device body 1, and then passes through the heat absorption terminal 26 of the radiator 2 to form the container. 21 and then to the liquid refrigerant held in the liquid refrigerant holding member 25 from the container 21 directly or via the heat conductor 23. As a result, evaporation of the liquid refrigerant occurs,
This evaporation latent heat cools the electronic components mounted on the electronic device body 1.

The generated refrigerant vapor is discharged to the outside through the space 24 and the vapor discharge hole 28. At this time, even if the refrigerant vapor is exposed to the outside air and condensed, the droplets are absorbed by the porous material 31 provided on the inner surface of the protective plate 29 and the outer surface of the makeup container 22. Therefore, the liquid droplet does not drop.

When used for a long time as described above, the amount of liquid refrigerant held by the liquid refrigerant holding material 25 gradually decreases. The degree of this decrease, that is, the current amount of liquid refrigerant is displayed in the display area 13. The current amount of liquid refrigerant is calculated, for example, based on the elapsed time from the time when the radiator 2 is attached. Then, when the amount of the liquid refrigerant becomes equal to or less than the predetermined value, the radiator 2 is once removed from the electronic device body 1 and the liquid refrigerant is injected through the liquid refrigerant inlet 27, so that it can be reused. That is, the radiator 2 is used as if the battery is replaced.

As described above, since the heat is absorbed by the phase change, a large amount of heat can be absorbed by using the small radiator 2. Therefore, it is possible to realize high-density mounting of electronic components without increasing the overall size, and contribute to realization of miniaturization, high performance, and multi-functionality.

Further, since the evaporative radiator 2 is used, not only noise and vibration are not generated, but also the structure is simplified, and the addition of the radiator 2 may increase the overall cost. Absent. Further, since the radiator 2 can be attached to and detached from the electronic device main body 1, the radiator 2 can be easily maintained.

If a porous body or fibers is used as the coolant holding material 25 as in the embodiment, good cooling characteristics can be exhibited regardless of the use posture of the electronic equipment body 1. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. That is, in the above-described embodiment, the space 24 in the radiator 2 and the atmosphere are constantly communicated with each other through the steam discharge hole 28, but as shown in FIG. 4, it also serves as a safety valve that is released when a certain pressure is exceeded. It may be closed with a stopper 34.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, a vapor absorbing member 35 for absorbing the generated vapor may be arranged in the space 24. In this way, the refrigerant can be reliquefied during the period when the electronic device body 1 is not used, so that the duration can be made longer than that of the radiator shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied even when the electronic device body 1a is a personal computer as shown in FIG.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to realize high-density mounting of electronic components without increasing the overall size, and contribute to the realization of miniaturization, high performance, and multi-functionality.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a radiator attached to the same device.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the radiator.

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view showing a modification of the radiator.

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing still another modified example of the radiator.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an electronic device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining cooling characteristics by a natural convection cooling method.

[Explanation of Codes] 1, 1a ... Electronic device main body 2, 2a, 2b
... Radiator 3 ... Battery case 21 ... Metal container 23 ... Heat conductor 24 ... Space 25 ... Liquid refrigerant holding material 26 ... Heat absorption terminal 27 ... Liquid refrigerant inlet 28 ... Steam discharge hole 29 ... Protection plate 32 ... Mounting tool 33 ... Power supply terminal 34 ... Plug also serving as a safety valve 35 ... Vapor absorbing member

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Katsu Ishizuka No. 1 Komukai Toshiba-cho, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Incorporated Toshiba Research and Development Center

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic equipment main body comprising a heat dissipation terminal on an outer surface thereof and means for guiding heat generated inside to the heat dissipation terminal; and an electronic device main body which is detachably provided to the electronic equipment main body. Having a refrigerant holding portion for holding and evaporating the refrigerant, the outer surface portion is thermally communicated with the refrigerant holding portion, and is thermally connected to the heat dissipation terminal when attached to the electronic device body. An electronic device comprising: an evaporation type radiator having a heat absorbing terminal. 2. The refrigerant holding portion holds the liquid refrigerant with a porous body or fibers.
Electronic device described in.