Flattened Heat Pipe Heat Sink for Space-Constrained Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing heat sinks with multiple heat pipes face space constraints in densely packed electronic devices, limiting cooling efficiency for high heat-generating elements.
Innovation Solution
A heat sink design with flattened heat pipes and a heat reception plate that allows for increased thermal connectivity without increasing installation space, using wick structures for efficient heat transfer and recirculation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a large number of heat pipes are arranged in parallel to cool high heat-generating elements, then cooling efficiency is improved, but installation space requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heat pipes are transformed from circular cross-section to flattened cross-section, changing the geometric dimension to enable better spatial arrangement. This dimensional change allows heat pipes to be closely arranged in parallel while maintaining effective heat transfer area, resolving the contradiction between cooling efficiency and installation space by optimizing the cross-sectional geometry for compact parallel arrangement.
Solution Approach 2:
The heat pipes exhibit different geometric properties at different locations: flattened cross-section for compact arrangement and sufficient thermal connectivity area. The flattened portion is specifically designed to provide adequate thermal contact area while reducing the overall volume occupied by the heat pipe group, enabling high-density arrangement without sacrificing cooling performance.
2Reliability
If heat pipes are flattened to increase thermal connectivity, then heat transfer efficiency is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cross-sectional geometry parameter of the heat pipes is changed from circular to flattened shape. This parameter change optimizes the heat transfer efficiency by increasing the contact area with the heating element while maintaining a relatively simple manufacturing process through conventional forming techniques, balancing performance improvement with manufacturing feasibility.
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
Enhances cooling efficiency by allowing more heat pipes to be connected to both the heating element and dissipation section, improving thermal connectivity and heat dissipation even in confined spaces.
Implementation Method 1
a heat sink configured to cool a heating element set as a cooling target by transferring heat of the heating element to a heat dissipation section by using a heat transfer function of a heat pipe
Implementation Method 2
transferring heat of the heating element to a heat dissipation section by using a heat transfer function of a heat pipe
Implementation Method 3
using wick structures for efficient heat transfer and recirculation
Data Source
AI summary
A heat sink includes a plurality of heat pipes to be thermally connected to a heating element, and a heat dissipation section thermally connected to the plurality of heat pipes, in which in the plurality of heat pipes, at least evaporation sections to be thermally connected to the heating element have flattened portions whose cross sectional shape in a direction orthogonal to a heat transfer direction of the plurality of heat pipes is flattened, and surfaces in the flattened portions in a thickness direction are arranged facing the heating element.