Electronic apparatus

Abstract

To provide an electronic apparatus which can suppress generation of failures of a fan device and can improve the reliability.SOLUTION: An electronic device 1 includes: a housing 10 for accommodating a heat-generating component; a cover part 20 covering a cooling surface 101 of the housing from above and forming a coolant flow path 40 between the cover part 20 and the cooling surface 101 of the housing; and a fan device 30 arranged on the downstream side of the flow path for flowing a coolant through the flow path. The fan device is provided at a position spaced upward from the cooling surface of the housing.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to electronic devices. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, there has been known an electronic device such as an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) mounted on a vehicle, etc. The electronic device includes a housing that houses a substrate and has a plurality of fins standing on the outer side of a surface facing the housed substrate, and a cooling fan that is provided on the housing and on the outer side of the surface facing the housed substrate and sends air to the plurality of fins, with a flow path formed between the plurality of fins and the cooling fan sending air to an inlet of the flow path. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2022-75116 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Conventional cooling fan configurations employ a design in which air is drawn in from above and blown toward the fins. The air drawn into a fan device, such as a cooling fan, can contain foreign matter, such as sand and dust. If foreign matter enters the fan device's air intake, it may come into contact with the blades, such as the impeller, that make up part of the fan device, potentially causing problems such as malfunctions or abnormal noise.

[0005] For example, it is conceivable to provide a filter to the fan device to prevent foreign matter from entering, but this raises concerns about problems such as clogging of the filter and a decline in the intake performance of the fan device. Thus, there is room for improvement in terms of preventing malfunctions of the fan device caused by the entry of foreign matter.

[0006] The present disclosure has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object to provide an electronic device that can suppress the occurrence of malfunctions in a fan device and improve reliability. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, one embodiment of an electronic device comprises a housing that houses a heat-generating component, a cover portion that is arranged to cover the cooling surface of the housing from above and forms a flow path for a refrigerant between the housing and the cooling surface, and a fan device that is arranged downstream of the flow path and circulates the refrigerant through the flow path, and the fan device is located at a position above and away from the cooling surface of the housing.

[0008] This prevents foreign matter that has entered the flow path from coming into contact with the fan device, thereby suppressing malfunctions in the fan device and improving the reliability of the electronic device. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically illustrating an example of a configuration of an electronic device according to a first embodiment; [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a cover and a fan unit in the electronic device according to a first embodiment; [Figure 3] FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating an example of a configuration of an electronic device according to a first embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically illustrating a configuration of a housing of an electronic device according to a first embodiment; [Figure 5] 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating other examples of vent holes formed in the cover portion of the electronic device according to the first embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a perspective view schematically illustrating an example of an inclined portion provided on a housing of the electronic device according to the second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] Hereinafter, several embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that substantially the same components in the respective embodiments will be denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

[0011] (First embodiment) First, the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 is configured as an ECU mounted on, for example, a vehicle. ECU stands for Electronic Control Unit. The electronic device 1 is provided, for example, below a seat in the vehicle. The electronic device 1 includes a housing 10, a cover 20, and a fan device 30.

[0012] The housing 10 is formed into a substantially rectangular box shape using, for example, a combination of synthetic resin and metal. The housing 10 houses a substrate 91 such as a printed wiring board inside. Electronic components including switching elements such as IGBTs and MOSFETs are mounted on the substrate 91. The substrate 91 corresponds to a heat-generating component that generates heat.

[0013] As shown in FIG. 2 and other figures, the housing 10 has a plurality of fins 11. The fins 11 are provided rising outward, in this case upward, from a top surface 101 of the housing 10 and extend along the longitudinal direction of the housing 10. The fins 11 are arranged approximately parallel to one another at predetermined intervals in the width direction of the housing 10. In this case, the housing 10 is a die-cast housing in which a heat sink is formed by the fins 11. The top surface 101 of the housing 10 functions as a cooling surface. Note that in FIG. 2 and other figures, for ease of viewing, only some of the fins 11 are indicated by reference numerals, and the reference numerals of the other fins 11 are omitted.

[0014] The cover 20 is formed in a generally container-like shape overall, and is disposed so as to cover a portion of the top surface 101 of the housing 10 from above. The cover 20 is detachably attached to the housing 10, for example, by screw fastening. As shown in FIG. 2 , the cover 20 has a cover main body 21, a storage section 22, and a ventilation hole 23. The cover main body 21 forms the main body of the cover 20. The cover main body 21 has a generally rectangular wall surface 211. The storage section 22 is located on the other end side of the cover 20 in the longitudinal direction. The storage section 22 is connected to and formed integrally with the wall surface 211. The longitudinal direction of the cover 20 coincides with the longitudinal direction of the housing 10. Furthermore, the width direction of the cover 20 coincides with the width direction of the housing 10.

[0015] The storage section 22 has an internal space formed by a bottom wall 221 and a side wall 222. The bottom wall 221 constitutes the bottom surface of the storage section 22. The side wall 222 is formed to rise upward from the bottom wall 221. The side wall 222 extends, for example, in a substantially circular shape overall. The storage section 22 has a storage section opening 223. The storage section opening 223 is located at the other end of the cover section 20 in the longitudinal direction, and connects the inside and outside of the storage section 22. The storage section opening 223 is formed in a substantially rectangular shape. The ventilation hole 23 is formed by penetrating the bottom wall 221 of the storage section 22 in the thickness direction. The ventilation hole 23 connects the inside and outside of the housing 10. The ventilation hole 23 is formed in, for example, a circular shape. The ventilation hole 23 is not limited to a circular shape, and may be another shape such as an elliptical shape or a rectangular shape.

[0016] As shown in Fig. 3, the cover 20 covers the multiple fins 11 from above. A predetermined gap is formed between the cover 20 and the upper ends of the fins 11. The cover 20 forms a flow path 40 between itself and the top surface 101 of the housing 10, through which a refrigerant, in this case air, can pass. In other words, the flow path 40 is provided inside the electronic device 1. In this case, the top surface 101 of the housing 10 forms the bottom surface of the flow path 40. The cover 20 forms the top surface of the flow path 40.

[0017] An inlet 401 of the flow path 40 is formed between the top surface 101 of the housing 10 and one end of the cover part 20. An outlet 402 of the flow path 40 is formed by the ventilation hole 23 of the cover part 20. That is, the ventilation hole 23 connects the inside and outside of the flow path 40. The direction in which air flows in the flow path 40 coincides with the longitudinal direction of the housing 10 and the cover part 20. The multiple fins 11 extend along the direction in which air flows in the flow path 40.

[0018] The fan device 30 is located downstream of the flow path 40. The fan device 30 has a function of causing air to flow through the flow path 40. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the fan device 30 is provided on the upper part of the cover 20. In other words, the fan device 30 is provided at a position above and away from the top surface 101 of the housing 10. In this embodiment, the air that has flowed through the flow path 40 flows into the fan device 30 through the vent 23 of the cover 20, as shown by the black arrow in FIG. 3.

[0019] The fan device 30 has a fan 31 and a fan case 32. The fan 31 is configured as, for example, a blower-type centrifugal fan. The fan 31 includes an impeller 311. The impeller 311 is connected to a motor (not shown) and is driven to rotate by the motor. The rotation axis of the impeller 311 is oriented, for example, vertically.

[0020] The impeller 311 is accommodated in the accommodation portion 22. The outer shape of the accommodation portion 22 corresponds to the outer shape of the impeller 311. As shown in FIG. 3, the impeller 311 is positioned facing the vent 23 from above. The outer periphery of the impeller 311 is positioned outward from the outer edge of the vent 23. In other words, the vent 23 is positioned inward from the outer periphery of the impeller 311. In other words, the vent 23 is formed in a shape smaller than the outer shape of the impeller 311. Furthermore, the vent 23 is positioned so as to overlap the center O of the impeller 311, in this case the rotation axis, in a plan view. In this embodiment, the center of the vent 23 coincides with the center O of the impeller 311.

[0021] In this embodiment, as shown in Fig. 4, a portion of the fin 11 is positioned so as to overlap the impeller 311 in a plan view. In this case, an upper end 11a of a portion of the fin 11 is positioned lower than an upper end 11b of the other portion of the fin 11, as shown in Fig. 3. The upper end 11a constitutes the upper end on the downstream side of the fin 11, while the upper end 11b constitutes the upper end on the upstream side of the fin 11. In other words, the height dimension of the fin 11 is set smaller on the downstream side than on the upstream side.

[0022] Fan case 32 is formed in a generally container-like shape with one side open. Fan case 32 houses impeller 311 inside together with housing section 22. Impeller 311 is fixed to fan case 32. Fan case 32 is detachably attached to side wall 222 of housing section 22, for example, by snap fitting. In this case, the outer shape of fan case 32 is configured to be generally the same as the outer shape of housing section 22.

[0023] 2 and 3, a case opening 321 is formed at an end of the fan case 32. The case opening 321 is formed in a substantially rectangular shape and has substantially the same opening width as the accommodation section opening 223. When the fan case 32 is attached to the accommodation section 22, the case opening 321 is aligned vertically with the accommodation section opening 223 to form an exhaust port 51. The exhaust port 51 is used to exhaust air that has flowed through the flow path 40 and into the fan device 30 through the vent port 23 to the outside of the fan device 30.

[0024] According to the embodiment described above, the electronic device 1 includes a housing 10, a cover 20, and a fan device 30. The housing 10 houses a substrate 91. The cover 20 is disposed so as to cover the top surface 101 of the housing 10 from above, and forms an air flow path 40 between the cover 20 and the top surface 101 of the housing 10. The fan device 30 is disposed downstream of the flow path 40 and serves to flow air through the flow path 40. The fan device 30 is disposed at a position above and spaced apart from the top surface 101 of the housing 10. This prevents foreign matter that has entered the flow path 40 from coming into contact with the fan device 30. This prevents malfunctions of the fan device 30. As a result, the reliability of the electronic device 1 can be improved.

[0025] Cover 20 is formed with vent hole 23 that connects the inside and outside of flow path 40. Fan device 30 has impeller 311 that faces vent hole 23 from above. Vent hole 23 is located inside the outer periphery of impeller 311.

[0026] This prevents foreign matter that has entered the flow path 40 from coming into contact with the outer periphery of the impeller 311 when it flows out of the flow path 40 through the ventilation hole 23 of the cover 20. This prevents malfunctions such as breakdowns and abnormal noises in the impeller 311. This prevents malfunctions in the fan device 30.

[0027] Moreover, ventilation opening 23 is positioned to overlap center O of impeller 311 in plan view. This makes it possible to efficiently increase the amount of air drawn into fan device 30 via ventilation opening 23. This improves the reliability of electronic device 1.

[0028] The housing 10 has fins 11, which are provided on the top surface 101 of the housing 10 and extend in the direction of air flow in the flow path 40. A portion of the fins 11 is positioned so as to overlap the fan device 30 in a plan view. This ensures that the length of the fins 11 that come into contact with the air in the flow path 40 is longer. This improves the heat dissipation performance of the electronic device 1, further improving the reliability of the electronic device 1.

[0029] Furthermore, upper ends 11a of some of the fins 11 are positioned lower than upper ends 11b of other parts of the fins 11. This reduces the height of the parts of the fins 11 positioned below the fan device 30, allowing the fan device 30 to be positioned as low as possible. This makes it possible to reduce the size of the electronic device 1 while suppressing malfunctions in the fan device 30.

[0030] Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to an embodiment in which the vent 23 is configured as a single hole, the configuration of the vent 23 is not limited thereto. Specifically, the vent 23 can be configured to have a plurality of holes 231, as shown in FIG. 5 . The plurality of holes 231 communicate between the inside and outside of the flow path 40. In this case, in the example of FIG. 5 , the plurality of holes 231 include a central hole 231a and peripheral holes 231b. The central hole 231a is positioned so as to overlap with the center O of the impeller 311. A plurality of, for example, six peripheral holes 231b are arranged at predetermined intervals in a concentric circle concentric with the central hole 231a. Note that in FIG. 5 , for ease of viewing, reference numerals are assigned to only some of the plurality of peripheral holes 231b, and reference numerals for the remaining peripheral holes 231b are omitted.

[0031] In this way, by configuring the ventilation opening 23 to have a plurality of holes 231, it is possible to reduce the opening area of each hole 231 while ensuring the amount of air passing through the ventilation opening 23 as a whole. This makes it difficult for foreign matter to pass through each hole 231. Therefore, foreign matter is prevented from coming into contact with the impeller 311, and the occurrence of problems such as breakdowns and abnormal noise of the impeller 311 can be suppressed.

[0032] (Second embodiment) Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 6. In this second embodiment, the structure of the housing 10 differs from that of the first embodiment. Specifically, in this embodiment, an inclined portion 12 is formed on the top surface 101 of the housing 10. As shown in FIG. 6, the inclined portion 12 is located at one end of the top surface 101 in the longitudinal direction. The inclined portion 12 is formed to slope downward from the inside to the outside of the top surface 101. In other words, the inclined portion 12 slopes downward in the opposite direction to the air flow direction in the flow path 40. The inclined portion 12 is provided at a position connected to the inlet 401 of the flow path 40.

[0033] The inclined portion 12 is exposed to the outside of the electronic device 1 when the cover portion 20 is attached to the housing 10. That is, the inclined portion 12 is located outside the flow path 40. By providing the inclined portion 12 outside the flow path 40 in this way, foreign matter such as sand and dust contained in the air flowing into the flow path 40 can be discharged to the outside of the electronic device 1 via the inclined portion 12. This makes it possible to prevent a situation in which foreign matter accumulates near the inlet 401 of the flow path 40, causing the inlet 401 of the flow path 40 to be blocked by the foreign matter.

[0034] According to the second embodiment, the same effects as those of the first embodiment can be achieved. In addition, the inclined portion 12 can make it easier for foreign matter to fall outside the housing 10. This prevents foreign matter from accumulating near the inlet 401 of the flow path 40 and blocking the flow path 40. Therefore, the reliability of the electronic device 1 can be improved.

[0035] In addition to the inventions set forth in the claims, the present disclosure also includes the following inventions. [1] a housing (10) for accommodating heat-generating components; a cover portion (20) disposed to cover the cooling surface (101) of the housing from above, and forming a refrigerant flow path (40) between the cover portion (20) and the cooling surface of the housing; a fan device (30) disposed downstream of the flow path for causing the refrigerant to flow through the flow path; The fan device is provided at a position above and spaced apart from the cooling surface of the housing. electronic equipment.

[0036] [2] The cover portion has a vent hole (23) formed therein that connects the inside and outside of the flow path, The fan device has an impeller (311) facing the vent hole from above, The vent hole is located inside the outer periphery of the impeller. [1] Electronic devices.

[0037] [3] The vent hole is positioned so as to overlap with the center of the impeller in a plan view. [1] Electronic devices.

[0038] [4] The vent has a plurality of holes (231) that communicate with the inside and outside of the flow path. Any electronic device listed in [1] to [3].

[0039] [5] the housing has fins (11) provided on the cooling surface of the housing and extending along the direction in which the refrigerant flows in the flow path; A portion of the fin is positioned so as to overlap with the fan device in a plan view. Any electronic device from [1] to [4].

[0040] [6] The upper end (11a) of one of the fins is located lower than the upper end (11b) of the other of the fins. [5] Electronic devices.

[0041] [7] The flow path has an inlet (401) formed between the cooling surface of the housing and the cover portion, The housing further includes an inclined portion (12) provided at a position connected to the inlet and formed to incline downward in a direction opposite to the flow direction of the refrigerant in the flow path. Any electronic device from [1] to [6].

[0042] The above-described embodiments can be combined with each other, or only the characteristic features of each embodiment can be extracted and combined.

[0043] Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to the embodiments, it is understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments or structures. The present disclosure also encompasses various modifications and modifications within the scope of equivalents. In addition, various combinations and forms, as well as other combinations and forms including only one element, more than one element, or less than one element, are also within the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. [Explanation of symbols]

[0044] 1...electronic device, 10...casing, 101...top surface (cooling surface), 20...covering portion, 30...fan device, 40...flow path

Claims

1. a housing (10) for accommodating heat-generating components; a cover portion (20) disposed to cover the cooling surface (101) of the housing from above and forming a refrigerant flow path (40) between the cover portion (20) and the cooling surface of the housing; a fan device (30) disposed downstream of the flow path for causing the refrigerant to flow through the flow path; The fan device is provided at a position above and spaced apart from the cooling surface of the housing. electronic equipment.

2. The cover portion has a vent hole (23) formed therein that connects the inside and outside of the flow path, The fan device has an impeller (311) facing the vent from above, The vent hole is located inside the outer periphery of the impeller. The electronic device according to claim 1 .

3. The vent hole is positioned so as to overlap with the center of the impeller in a plan view. The electronic device according to claim 2 .

4. The vent has a plurality of communicating holes (231) that communicate the inside and outside of the flow path. The electronic device according to claim 1 .

5. The housing has fins (11) provided on the cooling surface of the housing and extending along the direction in which the coolant flows in the flow path, A portion of the fin is positioned so as to overlap with the fan device in a plan view. The electronic device according to claim 1 .

6. The upper end (11a) of one of the fins is located lower than the upper end (11b) of the other part of the fin. The electronic device according to claim 5 .

7. The flow path has an inlet (401) formed between the cooling surface of the housing and the cover portion, The housing further includes an inclined portion (12) provided at a position connected to the inlet and formed to incline downward in a direction opposite to the flow direction of the refrigerant in the flow path. The electronic device according to claim 1 .

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