US20090194259A1

US20090194259A1 - Vapor chamber and supporting structure thereof

Info

Publication number: US20090194259A1
Application number: US12/170,594
Authority: US
Inventors: George Anthony Meyer, IV; Chien-Hung Sun; Ming-Kuei Hsieh; Yung-Tai Lu
Original assignee: Celsia Technologies Taiwan Inc
Current assignee: Celsia Technologies Taiwan Inc
Priority date: 2008-02-04
Filing date: 2008-07-10
Publication date: 2009-08-06
Also published as: TWM336673U

Abstract

In a vapor chamber and a supporting structure thereof, the vapor chamber includes a casing, in which a capillary wick and a supporting structure are accommodated. The supporting structure includes a plate, on which a plurality of channels are disposed at equal intervals and arranged by corresponding to each other. A corrugated piece is formed in each channel and upper and lower sides of the corrugated piece are respectively abutted against the capillary wick, making the capillary wick and inner wall faces of the casing tightly contacted to each other. In addition, a vapor chamber having this kind of supporting structure is provided. Thereby, it is possible to increase the phase-changing amount of the vapor chamber, accelerate the heat-transferring speed, and enhance the heat-conducting performance further.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a supporting structure, in particular, to a supporting structure for vapor chamber and a vapor chamber.
2. Description of Prior Art
Following continuous promotion in computing speed, more and more heat is generated in a computer's CPU. Thus, a cooling device comprised of aluminum-extruding cooler and fan has already been unable to satisfy the using requirement of current CPU. So, some relative industries subsequently develop heat pipe and vapor chamber, both of which have a higher heat-transferring performance. A cooler integrated with heat pipe or vapor chamber can effectively solve the cooling problem currently existed. Besides, since a vapor chamber is directly attached to heating electronic element with large contacting area, it attracts many relative industries to devote more efforts into the R&D work of this kind of vapor chamber.
As shown in FIG. 1, according to a prior art providing a vapor chamber and a supporting structure thereof, the vapor chamber mainly includes a casing 10 a, a working fluid 20 a, a capillary wick 30 a, and a support 40 a, in which the working fluid 20 a, the capillary wick 30 a, and the support 40 a are accommodated in the casing 10 a. In this case, the support 40 a is manufactured by bending a plate periodically to become a configuration of corrugated plate, upper and lower sides of which are respectively abutted against the inner sides of the capillary wick, such that the capillary wick 30 a and the inner wall faces of the casing 10 a are tightly contacted.
According to above prior art, the supporting structure is abutted against the capillary wick 30 a with an intention to make the inner wall faces of the casing 10 a tightly inter-contacted with the capillary wick 30. However, after being heated, the working fluid 20 a is changed into a vapor phase from a liquid phase, then moved toward two sides of the plate along the wave channels of the support 40 a, and finally transmitted into the above capillary wick 30 a to achieve a heat-transferring mechanism. Since the transporting route of the vaporized working fluid is too long, the heat-transferring performance is very poor. In addition, because the support 40 a is configured as a stripe shape to be abutted against the capillary wick 30 a, most part of the capillary wick 30 a is not abutted by the support 40 a and a falling or collapsing phenomenon easily occurs due to the long supporting span. All these drawbacks are needed to be overcome urgently.
Accordingly, aiming to solving the aforementioned shortcomings, after a substantially devoted study, in cooperation with the application of relatively academic principles, the inventor has at last proposed the present invention “vapor chamber and supporting structure thereof” that are designed reasonably to possess the capability to improve the prior arts significantly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is mainly to provide a vapor chamber and a supporting structure thereof, in which the interspacing arrangement of the channels with the corrugated pieces arranged therein not only can make the capillary wick uniformly abutted against the inner wall faces of the casing to enhance the tightly contacting effect, but also can increase the vaporization amount of the working fluid to accelerate the heat-transferring speed and further boost the heat-conducting performance of the vapor chamber.
Secondly, the invention is to provide a vapor chamber, including a casing, a working fluid, a capillary wick, and a supporting structure, in which the casing has a hollow chamber; the working fluid is injected into the hollow chamber; the capillary wick is distributed in the hollow chamber; the supporting structure is accommodated in the capillary wick, including a plate, on which a plurality of channels are interspaced at equal intervals and are arranged by corresponding to each other, in each of which a corrugated piece is configured, top and bottom faces of which are respectively abutted against the capillary wick in a way, such that the capillary wick are tightly contacted with the inner wall faces of the casing.
Thirdly, the invention is to provide a supporting structure of vapor chamber, the vapor chamber including a casing, in which a capillary wick and a supporting structure are accommodated. The supporting structure includes a plate, on which a plurality of channels are disposed at equal intervals and arranged by corresponding to each other. A corrugated piece is formed in each channel and upper and lower sides of the corrugated piece are respectively abutted against the capillary wick, making the capillary wick and inner wall faces of the casing tightly contacted to each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING

The features of the invention believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, may be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of the invention, which describes an exemplary embodiment of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an assembly-sectional view of a prior art;

FIG. 2 is a perspective outer appearance view of a supporting structure according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a locally enlarging view of an “A” zone in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explosively perspective view of each component of a vapor chamber according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an assembly-sectional view of a vapor chamber according to the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is an assembly-sectional view from another direction of a vapor chamber according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In cooperation with attached drawings, the technical contents and detailed description of the invention are described thereinafter according to a preferable embodiment, being not used to limit its executing scope. Any equivalent variation and modification made according to appended claims is all covered by the claims claimed by the present invention.
Please refer to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, which respectively are a perspective outer appearance view of a supporting structure according to the present invention and a locally enlarging view of an “A” zone in FIG. 2. The invention is to provide a vapor chamber and a supporting structure thereof, in which the vapor chamber includes a casing 10, a working fluid (please refer to FIG. 6), a capillary wick (please refer to FIG. 4), and a supporting structure 40.
In this case, the supporting structure 40 includes a rectangular plate 41, which is made of metal materials with highly structural strength, and on which a plurality of channels 42 are arranged at equal intervals and corresponding to each other, and a separating plate 43 is formed between two adjacent channels 42. Furthermore, a first corrugated piece 44 and a second corrugated piece 45 are respectively configured in the channel 42. The first corrugated piece 44 is comprised of a crest section 441 higher than the top face of the plate 41 and two trough sections 442 respectively connected to the crest section 441 and lower than the bottom face of the plate 41. In addition, followed the first corrugated piece 44, the second corrugated piece 45 is comprised of two crest sections 451 higher than the top face of the plate 41 and a trough section 452 connected to each crest section 451 and lower than the bottom face of the plate 41. In addition, the crest sections 441, 451 of any two adjacent corrugated pieces 44, 45 are not adjacent to each other. In this case, the crest section 441 of the first corrugated piece 44 is just corresponded to the trough section 452 of the second corrugated piece 45, while the two trough sections 442 of the first corrugated piece 44 are just corresponded to the two crest sections 451 of the second corrugated piece 45.
Please refer to FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6, which separately are an explosively perspective view of each component, an assembly-sectional view, and an assembly-sectional view from another direction, of a vapor chamber according to the present invention. In this case, the vapor chamber includes a casing 10, a working fluid 20 (as shown in FIG. 6), a capillary wick 30, and a supporting structure 40, in which the casing 10 is comprised of an upper casing 11 and a lower casing 12, between which a hollow chamber 13 is formed; the capillary wick 30 is webbed from metallic threads and is disposed in the hollow chamber 13; the supporting structure 40 is accommodated in the capillary wick 30 and abuts the capillary wick 30 against the inner wall faces of the upper and lower casings 11, 12 by means of each corrugated piece 44, 45; after the aforementioned components have been assembled, a working fluid 20 is injected therein from a degassing and filling tube of the lower casing 12, and the interior of the hollow chamber 13 is undertaken a vacuum extracting process subsequently to complete a manufacturing procedure of a vapor chamber of the invention.
According to the supporting structure 40 of the invention, since of the interspacing arrangement of each channel 42 and the disposition of the corrugated pieces 44, 45, not only the capillary wick can be uniformly abutted against and contacted to the inner wall faces of the casing 10 to enhance the tightly contacting effect between the capillary wick 30 and the inner wall faces of the casing 10, but also it is possible to increase the vaporization amount of the vapor chamber, accelerate the heat-transferring speed, and ultimately boost the heat-conducting performance.
Summarizing aforementioned description, the invention is a novel structure for supporting a vapor chamber indeed, which may positively reach the expected usage objective for solving the drawbacks of the prior arts, and which extremely possesses the innovation and progressiveness to completely fulfill the applying merits of new type patent, according to which the invention is thereby applied. Please examine the application carefully and grant it as a formal patent for protecting the rights of the inventor.
Moreover, the aforementioned description is only a preferable embodiment according to the present invention, being not used to limit the patent scope of the invention, so equivalently structural variation made to the contents of the present invention, for example, description and drawings, is all covered by the claims claimed thereinafter.

Claims

1. A vapor chamber, including:

a casing, which has a hollow chamber;

a working fluid, which is injected into the hollow chamber;

a capillary wick, which is distributed in the hollow chamber; and

a supporting structure, which is accommodated in the capillary wick and includes a plate, on which a plurality of channels are interspaced at equal intervals and are arranged by corresponding to each other, a corrugated piece being configured in each channel, top and bottom faces of the corrugated piece being respectively abutted against the capillary wick, making the capillary wick tightly contacted with inner wall faces of the casing.

2. The vapor chamber according to claim 1, wherein a separating plate is formed between any two adjacent channels.

3. The vapor chamber according to claim 1, wherein the corrugated pieces are separately comprised of a plurality of first corrugated pieces and a plurality of second corrugated pieces.

4. The vapor chamber according to claim 3, wherein the first corrugated piece is comprised of a crest section higher than a top face of the plate and two trough sections respectively connecting the crest section and lower than a bottom face of the plate.

5. The vapor chamber according to claim 4, wherein the second corrugated piece is comprised of two crest sections higher than a top face of the plate and a trough section connecting the two crest sections and lower than a bottom face of the plate.

6. The vapor chamber according to claim 5, wherein the crest section of the first corrugated piece is disposed by corresponding to the trough section of the second corrugated piece, while the trough section of the first corrugated piece is disposed by corresponding to the crest of the second corrugated piece.

7. The vapor chamber according to claim 3, wherein the second corrugate piece is comprised of two crest sections higher than a top face of the plate and a trough section connecting the two crest sections and lower than a bottom face of the plate.

8. A supporting structure of vapor chamber, the vapor chamber including a casing, in which a capillary wick and a supporting structure are accommodated, the supporting structure including a plate, on which a plurality of channels are disposed at equal intervals and arranged by corresponding to each other, a corrugated piece being formed in each channel, upper and lower sides of the corrugated piece being respectively abutted against the capillary wick, making the capillary wick and inner wall faces of the casing tightly contacted to each other.

9. The vapor chamber according to claim 8, wherein a separating plate is formed between any two adjacent channels.

10. The vapor chamber according to claim 8, wherein the corrugated pieces are separately comprised of a plurality of first corrugated pieces and a plurality of second corrugated pieces.

11. The vapor chamber according to claim 10, wherein the first corrugated piece is comprised of a crest section higher than a top face of the plate and two trough sections respectively connecting the crest section and lower than a bottom face of the plate.

12. The vapor chamber according to claim 11, wherein the second corrugated piece is comprised of two crest sections higher than a top face of the plate and a trough section connecting the two crest sections and lower than a bottom face of the plate.

13. The vapor chamber according to claim 12, wherein the crest section of the first corrugated piece is disposed by corresponding to the trough section of the second corrugated piece, while the trough section of the first corrugated piece is disposed by corresponding to the crest of the second corrugated piece.

14. The vapor chamber according to claim 10, wherein the second corrugate piece is comprised of two crest sections higher than a top face of the plate and a trough section connecting the two crest sections and lower than a bottom face of the plate.