CIRCUIT BOARD WITH ARRANGEMENT FOR COOLING POWER COMPONENTS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a circuit board with an arrangement for cooling power components, the circuit board having at least one conductive layer for supplying signals and/or current to the active and other components installed on the circuit board, a primary cooling layer, and insulation material insulating the conductive layers and the primary cooling layer from each other and binding the circuit board, whereby one or more heat-generating power components having substantially the same electric potential are in thermal and electrical contact with the primary cooling layer in order to cool the heat- generating power components on the circuit board.
Cooling in itself is an old and known problem. In electronics, for instance, its significance has continuously grown with the increase in integration densities and power, because all electronic components generate heat whose dissipation is necessary for optimum and reliable operation of the components. Since electronics continuously moves towards using higher and higher power in smaller and smaller volume, the temperature control of electronic components has become a conclusive criterion in design. Many of today's electronic equipment require cooling which cannot be achieved by conventional metal cooling fins.
Various arrangements for cooling the power components on a circuit board are previously known.
Article "Metal Core Boards - an alternative for cooling critical components" in the Circuits Manufacturing publication, September 1980, pages 74 to 80, discloses a circuit board with an arrangement for cooling power components, which circuit board uses a metal core as a cooling layer to transmit the thermal energy generated by the power components to the circuit board. The power components are cooled as the thermal energy is transmitted from them to the cooling layer. A problem with the above arrangement is that it is not possible to attach several power components having a different electric potential to one and the same cooling layer, because the power components also conduct current to the cooling layer. If several power components having a different electric potential were attached to the same cooling layer, this would result in having the current conducted from one power component also conducted to
the other components installed on the cooling layer. This would cause disruption in the operation of the power components and possible damage to the components.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION It is thus an object of the invention to develop a circuit board with an arrangement for cooling the power components, which arrangement solves the above problem.
The object of the invention is achieved by a circuit board characterized in that it has at least one secondary cooling layer which is galvanically insulated from the primary cooling layer and that one or more heat-generating power components having substantially the same electric potential are in thermal and electrical contact with the secondary cooling layer in order to cool the heat-generating power components on the circuit board.
Preferred embodiments of the circuit board of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.
The invention is based on the idea that one or more heat- generating power components having the same electric potential are attached to a primary cooling layer which is galvanically insulated from a secondary cooling layer to which one or more heat-generating power components having the same electric potential are attached, which results in that one power component cannot conduct current to another power component having a different electric potential.
A preferred embodiment of the circuit board of the invention provides the advantage that since the surface area of the primary cooling layer substantially corresponds to the surface area of the circuit board, cooling is efficient, because one component to be cooled can have a cooling layer of the size of the circuit board.
The circuit board of the invention provides the further advantage that it can be made of any ordinary, inexpensive circuit board material, such as copper metal, glass fibre and epoxy, making the manufacturing costs of the circuit board low.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
In the following, the invention will be described by means of preferred embodiments and with reference to the attached drawings, in which
Figure 1 is a side-view schematic of a six-layer circuit board, the circuit board having a primary cooling layer and one secondary cooling layer,
Figure 2 is a side-view schematic of a six-layer circuit board, the circuit board having a primary cooling layer and one secondary cooling layer, Figure 3 is a side-view schematic of an eight-layer circuit board, the circuit board having a primary cooling layer and three secondary cooling layers, and
Figure 4 is a side-view schematic of an eight-layer circuit board, the circuit board having a primary cooling layer and three secondary cooling layers.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Figures 1 to 4 show schematics of circuit boards with an arrangement for cooling heat-generating power components 1. As shown in Figures 1 to 4, the circuit board has at least one conductive layer 2 for supplying signals and/or current to the power components 1 and other components (not shown) installed on the circuit board, and one primary cooling layer 3. The number of conductive layers 2 depends, for instance, on the purpose of use of the circuit board.
One or more heat-generating power components 1 having substantially the same electric potential are in thermal and electrical contact with the primary cooling layer 3 in order to cool the heat-generating power components 1 on the circuit board.
Because supplying signals and current to the power components 1 and other components on the circuit board is a technique known per se and not the object of the present invention, it is not presented in greater detail in this context.
In this context, an power component 1 refers to a component whose operation generates so much thermal energy that cooling is required.
The circuit board is layered which means that it is made of several layers having substantially the same surface area. The thickness of the layers may vary from one layer to another.
The circuit board has an insulating material 4 which insulates the conductive layers 2 and the primary cooling layer 3 from each other and binds the circuit board. With a thin insulating layer, the thermal resistance between
two conducting layers or one conducting layer and one cooling layer is smaller.
The circuit board also has at least one secondary cooling layer 5 which is galvanically insulated from the primary cooling layer 3. One or more heat-generating power components 1 having substantially the same electric potential are in thermal and electrical contact with the secondary cooling layer 5 in order to cool the heat-generating power components 1 on the circuit board.
The insulating material 4 preferably insulates the primary cooling layer 3 from the secondary cooling layer 5.
Having the primary cooling layer 3 and the secondary cooling layer 5 galvanically insulated from each other means here that electric current cannot be conducted between them. If the circuit board has a primary cooling layer 3 and one secondary cooling layer 5, for instance, as in Figures 1 and 2, two heat-generating power components 1 having a different electric potential or two groups of power components formed by heat-generating power components 1 having substantially the same electric potential can thus be cooled without the power components 1 having different electric potentials conducting current to each other. The circuit boards in Figures 3 and 4 comprise a primary cooling layer 3 and three secondary cooling layers 5. The arrangements in Figures 3 and 4 can thus cool four heat-generating power components 1 having different electric potentials or four groups of power components formed by heat- generating power components 1 having substantially the same electric potential without the power components 1 having different electric potentials conducting current to each other.
The thickness of the conductive layers 2 can be 60 to 110μm, for instance, and that of the cooling layers 3 and 5 can be 100 to 200 μm, for instance. The primary cooling layer 3 and the secondary cooling layers 5 are preferably made of copper metal. Alternatively these can be made of another material with a good heat transmission property. The layers 3 and 5 can also be used for supplying signals and/or current.
The insulating material 4 preferably comprises epoxy and glass fibre. Alternatively, these layers can be made of some other insulating material binding the cooling layers 3 and 5 and the conductive layers 2 together.
The conductive layers 2 are preferably made of copper metal. Alternatively, these layers can be made of another electrically conductive material.
The circuit board preferably comprises first heat transmission elements 6 which are arranged to transmit thermal energy from the heat- generating power component 1 to the primary cooling layer 3 and/or the secondary cooling layer 5. The heat transmission elements can be lead- throughs.
In Figure 1 , the first heat transmission elements 6 are made of first dummy holes which are between the surface of the circuit board and the primary cooling layer 3 and arranged to transmit thermal energy from the heat- generating power component 1 to the primary cooling layer, and of such first dummy holes which are between the surface of the circuit board and the secondary cooling layer 5 and arranged to transmit thermal energy from the heat-generating power component 1 to the secondary cooling layer 5.
The circuit board preferably has second heat transmission elements 7 which are arranged to transmit thermal energy from the primary cooling layer 3 and/or the secondary cooling layer 5 to the surrounding area.
Figure 2 shows a circuit board whose first heat transmission elements 6 and second heat transmission elements 7 are combined so that the first dummy holes and the second dummy holes form a unified structure running through the circuit board.
The first dummy holes and the second dummy holes are preferably at least partly filled with the insulating material 4. Alternatively, the primary cooling layer 3 and/or one secondary cooling layer 5 can form a part of the circuit board surface so that the heat- generating power component 1 is attached directly to the surface of the primary cooling layer 3 and/or one secondary cooling layer 5.
If a circuit board winding (not shown) is integrated to the circuit board, the primary cooling layer 3 and the secondary cooling layers 5 can be made up of the windings of an inductive component integrated to the circuit board. Correspondingly, the primary cooling layer 3 and the secondary cooling layers 5 can form the winding of an inductive component. This arrangement provides for two purposes with the same circuit board parts. It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that while technology advances, the basic idea of the invention can be implemented in many
different ways. The invention and its embodiments are thus not restπcted to the examples described above, but can vary within the scope of the claims.