TW202045881A - Cooling system - Google Patents

Abstract

A cooling system includes a housing, a dielectric liquid, and a dielectric vapor. The housing has an accommodating space configured to accommodate a heat generating component. The dielectric liquid partially fills the accommodating space and is configured to contact the heat generating component. The dielectric vapor partially fills the accommodating space and contacts the housing.

Description

cooling system

This disclosure relates to an electronic device cooling system.

For some harsher operating environments (for example: some automotive computing, edge computing, etc.), due to environmental constraints, fans cannot be used for cooling, and fanless designs must be adopted. The common heat dissipation method of a fanless system is to contact the heating element through the metal block inside the case, so that the heat generated by the heating element is transferred to the case, and then further discharged to the surrounding environment. When using the above methods to dissipate heat, in order to make the heating element thermally contact the case, the internal design of the case must match the configuration of the heating element, and for low-height components, it needs to be equipped with a boss and other structures to make it contact the case. The processing cost is relatively high, the time is relatively long, and the commonality is low.

In addition, the use of solid heat transfer methods cannot effectively guide the heat generated by the local high-heat-density components to the casing, which results in the limitation of the heat density of the system and limits the system layout.

In view of this, one purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a cooling system for electronic devices that can increase design flexibility and improve heat dissipation efficiency.

To achieve the above objective, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a cooling system includes a housing, a dielectric fluid, and a dielectric vapor. The housing has an accommodation space, and the accommodation space is configured to accommodate a heating component. The dielectric liquid partially fills the accommodating space and is configured to contact the heat generating component. The dielectric vapor partially fills the accommodating space and contacts the housing.

In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the dielectric fluid is configured to completely cover the heating component.

In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the viscosity of the dielectric fluid is less than the viscosity of mineral oil.

In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the surface tension of the dielectric fluid is less than the surface tension of mineral oil.

In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the cooling system further includes a radiator disposed on the outer surface of the casing.

In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the heat sink is located on the side of the dielectric vapor away from the dielectric fluid.

In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the heat sink is a heat dissipation fin.

In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the cooling system further includes a pipe, which communicates with the accommodating space and extends outside the casing. The dielectric vapor is configured to flow at least partially into the tube.

In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the cooling system further includes a heat sink, which is disposed on the outer surface of the casing and has at least one through hole. The pipe passes through the through hole and contacts the radiator.

In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the pipe is a copper pipe.

To sum up, the cooling system of the present disclosure utilizes the change of the dielectric liquid phase to assist the heat dissipation of the heat-generating components. Compared with the traditional heat dissipation method that relies solely on the heat conduction between the heat-generating component and the housing, the cooling system of the present disclosure has at least the following advantages: (1) The structure is simple and the manufacturing cost is low; (2) The structural design of the cooling system does not need to be changed with the different structural configurations of the matching heating components. A single design can be matched with a variety of heating components, and the commonality is high; (3) The dielectric fluid will move by itself due to the density difference, so components that are shielded and not in contact with the housing can also effectively dissipate heat; (4) The resistance to local components with high thermal density is higher.

In order to make the description of this disclosure more detailed and complete, please refer to the attached drawings and the various embodiments described below. The elements in the drawings are not drawn to scale, and are provided only to illustrate the present disclosure. Many practical details are described below to provide a comprehensive understanding of this disclosure. However, those of ordinary skill in the relevant fields should understand that this disclosure can be implemented without one or more practical details. Therefore, these details are not Application to limit this disclosure.

Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a cross-sectional view of the cooling system 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The cooling system 100 is used to cool a heat-generating component 900. For example, the heat-generating component 900 may be electronic components such as various chips and plug-in cards, or electronic devices including the above-mentioned electronic components. The cooling system 100 includes a housing 110, a dielectric fluid 120 and a dielectric vapor 130. The housing 110 has an airtight accommodating space 111 which is configured to accommodate the heating component 900. The dielectric fluid 120 partially fills the accommodating space 111 and is configured to contact the heating component 900. The dielectric vapor 130 partially fills the accommodating space 111 and contacts the housing 110.

As shown in Figure 1, specifically, the accommodating space 111 is divided into a liquid area 112 at the bottom and a vapor area 113 outside the liquid area 112. The dielectric fluid 120 is located in the liquid area 112, and the dielectric vapor 130 is located in the vapor area. In the area 113, the interface between the liquid area 112 and the vapor area 113 is the liquid surface of the dielectric liquid 120. In some embodiments, the liquid level of the dielectric fluid 120 is higher than that of the heating component 900. In other words, the heating component 900 is located in the liquid area 112 and is completely covered by the dielectric fluid 120.

For example, after the dielectric fluid 120 and the heating component 900 are loaded into the accommodating space 111 of the housing 110, a portion of the area above the dielectric fluid 120 that is not filled with the dielectric fluid 120 (that is, the vapor region 113) remains, and then The air in the area is evacuated, and the accommodation space 111 is sealed. The dielectric fluid 120 has a relatively low boiling point at low pressure, so it is easy to vaporize to form the dielectric vapor 130 filled in the vapor region 113.

After the heating component 900 starts to operate and generate heat, the dielectric fluid 120 covering the heating component 900 absorbs the heat generated by the heating component 900 and partially transforms into a gaseous dielectric vapor 130 after absorbing the heat. The dielectric vapor 130 moves toward a low temperature under the pressure difference (for example, the housing 110 is away from the top wall 114 of the heating component 900), and touches the housing 110 at a low temperature to condense and transform back to the liquid dielectric fluid 120 . The heat absorbed by the housing 110 from the dielectric vapor 130 can be further transferred to the surrounding environment through natural convection or thermal conduction, and the dielectric fluid 120 produced by condensation will flow back to the liquid area 112 below and repeat the above process.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the cooling system 100 utilizes the phase change of the dielectric fluid 120 to assist the heat-generating component 900 to dissipate heat. Compared with the traditional heat dissipation method that relies solely on the heat conduction between the heat-generating component and the housing, the cooling system 100 can achieve higher heat dissipation. The efficiency and the ability to withstand the local high temperature of the heating component 900 is better. In addition, since the specific heat of the dielectric fluid 120 is higher than that of air, the environmental temperature change has less influence on the heat-generating component 900 immersed in the dielectric fluid 120, so the failure rate of the heat-generating component 900 can be reduced.

Ideally, within the operating temperature range of the heating component 900, the accommodating space 111 is in a state where the dielectric fluid 120 and the dielectric vapor 130 coexist, so that the principle of phase change can be effectively used to cool the heating component 900. Those with ordinary knowledge in the technical field can choose an appropriate type of dielectric fluid 120 to match the operating temperature range of the heating component 900, and can also control the dielectric fluid 120 by adjusting the pressure (or vacuum) inside the accommodating space 111 The boiling point. If the boiling point of the dielectric fluid 120 is too high, the heat generated by the heating component 900 may not be enough to boil and vaporize the dielectric fluid 120. On the contrary, if the boiling point of the dielectric fluid 120 is too low, the dielectric fluid 120 may completely vaporize into Dielectric vapor 130.

In some embodiments, the viscosity of the dielectric fluid 120 is less than the viscosity of mineral oil, and/or the surface tension of the dielectric fluid 120 is less than the surface tension of mineral oil. The dielectric fluid 120 with the above-mentioned characteristics is easy to remove, making system maintenance more convenient. In some embodiments, the dielectric fluid 120 may be, for example, a refrigerant.

As shown in FIG. 1, in some embodiments, the cooling system 100 further includes a radiator 140 disposed on the outer surface 115 of the housing 110 and located on the side of the dielectric vapor 130 away from the dielectric fluid 120. The radiator 140 can increase the surface area of the cooling system 100 and promote heat exchange between the cooling system 100 and the surrounding environment. In some embodiments, the heat sink 140 is a heat dissipation fin installed on the top wall 114 of the housing 110. In some embodiments, heat dissipation fins may also be provided on the outer surface of the side wall of the housing 110.

Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a cross-sectional view of a cooling system 200 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The cooling system 200 includes a housing 210, a dielectric fluid 120, a dielectric vapor 130 and a pipe 250. One difference between this embodiment and the embodiment shown in Figure 1 is that the cooling system 200 of this embodiment further includes a pipe 250 that communicates with the housing space 111 inside the housing 210 (specifically, the pipe 250 communicates with The vapor area 113 of the accommodating space 111), and extends outside the housing 210. The space inside the pipe 250 and the accommodating space 111 of the housing 210 form an airtight space.

Based on the above, the pipe 250 allows at least a part of the dielectric vapor 130 to enter to increase the heat exchange between the dielectric vapor 130 and the outside. Part of the dielectric vapor 130 is condensed in the pipe 250 and converted back to the liquid dielectric fluid 120, and the dielectric fluid 120 produced by the condensation flows back to the accommodating space 111 inside the housing 210 under the guidance of the pipe 250. In some embodiments, the top wall 214 of the housing 210 has two openings 216, and two ends of the tube 250 are connected to the openings 216 and extend above the housing 210. In some embodiments, the dielectric fluid 120 condensed in the pipe 250 flows back to the accommodating space 111 inside the housing 210 under the guidance of gravity. In some embodiments, the inner wall of the tube 250 has a capillary structure 251, and the dielectric fluid 120 condensed in the tube 250 is guided by the capillary structure 251 to flow back to the accommodation space 111 inside the housing 210.

In some embodiments, the tube 250 can be combined with the heat sink 240 to further improve the heat dissipation capability. The radiator 240 has at least one through hole 241, and the tube 250 passes through the through hole 241 and contacts the radiator 240. In some embodiments, the heat sink 240 includes a plurality of heat dissipation fins, the through holes 241 are opened on the heat dissipation fins, and are arranged in a plurality of rows, and the tube 250 extends back and forth through the plurality of rows of through holes 241 (and between adjacent heat dissipation fins). Space) to increase the contact area with the heat sink 240. In some embodiments, part of the through hole 241 is located at the end of the heat dissipation fin (that is, the end of the heat dissipation fin away from the housing 210), and the dielectric vapor 130 is guided by the tube 250 through the heat dissipation fin with a lower temperature The end part to improve the heat dissipation effect. For example, the tube 250 may be a copper tube, or the tube 250 may include other high thermal conductivity materials.

To sum up, the cooling system of the present disclosure utilizes the change of the dielectric liquid phase to assist the heat dissipation of the heat-generating components. Compared with the traditional heat dissipation method that relies solely on the heat conduction between the heat-generating component and the housing, the cooling system of the present disclosure has at least the following advantages: (1) The structure is simple and the manufacturing cost is low; (2) The structural design of the cooling system does not need to be changed with the different structural configurations of the matching heating components. A single design can be matched with a variety of heating components, and the commonality is high; (3) The dielectric fluid will move by itself due to the density difference, so components that are shielded and not in contact with the housing can also effectively dissipate heat; (4) The resistance to local components with high thermal density is higher.

Although this disclosure has been disclosed in the above manner, it is not intended to limit the disclosure. Anyone who is familiar with this technique can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure. Therefore, the protection of this disclosure The scope shall be subject to those defined in the attached patent scope.

100, 200: cooling system 110, 210: shell 111: containing space 112: liquid area 113: vapor area 114, 214: top wall 115: outer surface 120: dielectric fluid 130: dielectric vapor 140, 240: heat dissipation 216: opening 241: through hole 250: pipe fitting 251: capillary structure 900: heating component

In order to make the above and other objectives, features, advantages and implementations of the present disclosure more comprehensible, the description of the accompanying drawings is as follows: Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of a cooling system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of a cooling system according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

100: cooling system

110: shell

111: housing space

112: Liquid area

113: Steam area

114: top wall

115: outer surface

120: Dielectric fluid

130: Dielectric vapor

140: radiator

900: Heating parts

Claims (10)

A cooling system includes: a housing with an accommodating space configured to accommodate a heating component; a dielectric fluid partially filling the accommodating space and configured to contact the heating component; and Electric vapor partially fills the accommodating space and contacts the housing. The cooling system according to claim 1, wherein the dielectric fluid arrangement completely covers the heat generating component. The cooling system according to claim 1, wherein a viscosity of the dielectric fluid is less than a viscosity of mineral oil. The cooling system according to claim 1, wherein a surface tension of the dielectric fluid is less than a surface tension of mineral oil. The cooling system according to claim 1, further comprising a radiator disposed on an outer surface of the casing. The cooling system according to claim 5, wherein the radiator is located on a side of the dielectric vapor away from the dielectric fluid. The cooling system according to claim 5, wherein the heat sink is a heat dissipation fin. The cooling system according to claim 1, further comprising a pipe connected to the accommodating space and extending outside the casing, wherein the dielectric vapor is configured to flow at least partially into the pipe. The cooling system according to claim 8, further comprising a radiator, which is disposed on an outer surface of the casing and has at least one through hole, and the tube passes through the at least one through hole and contacts the radiator. The cooling system according to claim 8, wherein the pipe is a copper pipe.

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