EHD Microchannel Heat Sink for Silent Gas-Flow Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional heat sinks face challenges with poor thermal properties of gases, limited surface area, and inefficient integration with fluid pump designs, leading to ineffective heat dissipation and large size.
Innovation Solution
A cooling system integrating an electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) pumping mechanism, such as corona wind or micro-scale corona wind, with a channel-array heat sink structure, where EHD pumps are located at the inlet or outlet of the channels to enhance gas flow and heat dissipation, reducing volume and weight while maintaining performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional heat sinks use fans and blowers to promote gas flow, then heat dissipation performance is improved, but device complexity and noise increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical fans and blowers with an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) pumping mechanism that uses electric fields to generate ion-driven gas flow. This substitution eliminates moving mechanical parts, reducing device complexity and noise while maintaining heat dissipation performance through the micro-scale corona wind effect
2Productivity
If conventional heat sinks increase surface area to improve heat dissipation, then cooling performance is improved, but volume and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from conventional large-scale heat sink structures to a micro-channel array configuration, effectively utilizing the micro-scale dimension. This dimensional change allows for high surface area-to-volume ratio heat dissipation structures that maintain compact form factors while improving cooling performance through enhanced gas flow control
3Productivity
If conventional heat sinks use large volume to accommodate sufficient surface area, then heat dissipation is improved, but integration with fluid pump designs becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the heat sink structure with the EHD pumping mechanism by integrating ion-generating electrodes directly into the heat sink channels. This combination creates a unified device where the heat dissipation and gas flow generation functions are combined, improving integration capability and adaptability with fluid pump designs
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system achieves similar or better performance than conventional heat sinks and fans with significantly reduced volume and weight, operating silently and efficiently, with improved gas flow characteristics.
Implementation Method 1
One of these methods of pumping a gas is called corona wind. It refers to the gas flow that is established between two electrodes, one sharp and the other blunt, when a high voltage is applied between the electrodes. The gas is partially ionized in the region of high electric field near the sharp electrode. The ions that are attracted to the more distant, blunt electrode collide with neutral molecules en route and create a pumping action.
Implementation Method 2
The gas is partially ionized in the region of high electric field near the sharp electrode. The ions that are attracted to the more distant, blunt electrode collide with neutral molecules en route and create a pumping action.
Implementation Method 3
These methods are collectively referred to as electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) pumps. One of these methods of pumping a gas is called corona wind.
Implementation Method 4
Heat sinks rely mainly on the dissipation of heat from the device using air. Additionally, these heat sink designs do not integrate well with certain types of fluid pump designs.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to cooling systems, and in particular to cooling systems providing forced convective gaseous flow. According to one aspect, a cooling system employs a heat sink in combination with an EHD pumping mechanism such as corona wind or micro-scale corona wind or by a temporally controlled ion-generation technique. A channel-array structure can be employed to embody the heat sink. The EHD pumps are located at the inlet or outlet of the heat sink channels. Many advantages are achieved by the cooling system of the invention, including that the entire system can have similar or better performance than a conventional heat sink and fan system but with one-tenth the volume and weight and can operate silently. The present invention also relates to a method of fabricating a micro-channel heat sink employing EHD gas flow.