Double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus

Abstract

A double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus is described. The double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus includes a heat-dissipating barrel, a wind guide, cooling fins, and a fan. The heat-dissipating barrel further includes a thermoelectric chip-cooling module and heat-dissipating fins disposed therein. The fan drives a part of air passing through the heat-dissipating fins to remove a heat exchanged by the thermoelectric chip-cooling module. One end of the wind guide is coupled to a heat source of an electronic device, for example, a CPU or a graphic card of a computer. Another end of the wind guide is coupled to the fan to guide another part of the air through the cooling fins reducing the temperature thereof to the heat source of the electronic device to reduce the operating temperature of the heat source.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Taiwan Application Serial Number 95203660, filed Mar. 6, 2006, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention generally relates to a double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus. More particularly, this invention relates to a double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus for a computer system.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The information technology and the computer industry are technologically highly developed and the semiconductor manufacturing processes have very advanced requirements. Therefore, the electric circuit layouts of semiconductors have become more complicated and more sophisticated. Complicated and sophisticated semiconductors have higher power consumption, which results in an increase in the operating temperature thereof.[0004]However, semiconductor electronic components are used extensivel...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]One object of the present invention is to provide a double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus with a thermoelectric chip-cooling module, a wind guide and a fan to blow air to both sides of the thermoelectric chip-cooling module to remove the heat exchanged by the thermoelectric chip-cooling module and drive the air cooled by the thermoelectric chip-cooling module to a heat source, such as an integrated circuit device, of an electronic device so as to reduce the temperature thereof.

[0009]Another object of the present invention is to provide a double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus with a thermoelectric chip-cooling module, a wind guide, a fan and, in conjunction with, a heat-dissipating device of a heat source, for example, a central processing unit or a graphic chip. The fan blows air to both sides of the thermoelectric chip-cooling module to remove the heat exchanged by the thermoelectric chip-cooling module and drive the air cooled by the thermoelectric chip-cooling module to the heat-dissipating module of the heat source so as to reduce the temperature thereof and further reduce the internal temperature of a computer with the heat source.

[0010]To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodiment and broadly described herein, the present invention provides a double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus to cool a heat source of an electronic device, for example, a CPU or a graphic chip of a computer. The double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus includes a heat-dissipating barrel, a wind guide, cooling fins and a fan. The heat-dissipating barrel further includes a thermoelectric chip-cooling module and heat-dissipating fins disposed therein to remove a heat exchanged by the thermoelectric chip-cooling module. The wind guide is preferably coupled between the fan and the heat source of the electronic device. The cooling fins are preferably disposed between the wind guide and the thermoelectric chip-cooling module. The fan is installed on one end of the wind guide to drive the airflow through both the cooling fins and the heat-dissipating fins. Therefore, a part of the airflow passes through the heat-dissipating fins to remove the heat exchanged by the thermoelectric chip-cooling module out of the electronic device, and another part of the airflow passes through the cooling fins so as to reduce the temperature of another part of the airflow. In addition, another part of the airflow is blown to the heat source of the electronic device through the wind guide to effectively reduce the operating temperature of the heat source.

[0013]The double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus according to the present invention can use a cooling fan to suck external air into the computer to cool a part of the air by the thermoelectric chip-cooling module. The cold air can be directly driven to a heat source, for example, an integrated circuit such as a central processing unit or a graphic chip, to reduce the operating temperature thereof. In addition, another part of the air is driven to the hot side of the thermoelectric chip-cooling module with the same fan to remove the heat exchanged by the thermoelectric chip-cooling module. Accordingly, the double-effect thermoelectric cooling apparatus can effectively reduce the temperature inside the computer and increase the operation stability of the computer.

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, the electric circuit layouts of semiconductors have become more complicated and more sophisticated.

Complicated and sophisticated semiconductors have higher power consumption, which results in an increase in the operating temperature thereof.

The high operating temperature can cause instabilities in a working system.

Furthermore, if the operating temperature is too high, the performance and stability decrease and the operating system may even crash, in extreme situations.

However, when the heat generated by the CPU is removed from the CPU, the heat still resides in the computer.

The larger heat-dissipating device has to occupy more space inside the computer otherwise the stability of the computer system may be reduced because there is too much heat inside the computer.

Images