Heat Pipe Air Plenum Layout for Low-Pressure IC Cooling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
High-power integrated circuits, such as CPUs and GPUs, face thermal constraints that limit processing speeds due to inefficient heat removal, exacerbated by thermal resistances in modern chip-package architectures.
Innovation Solution
A heat exchanger design incorporating heat pipes and cooling fins, where the heat pipes have evaporator and condenser portions, and the cooling fins form low and high pressure-drop plenums to enhance heat transfer efficiency, reducing pressure drop and fan power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If conventional heat exchangers are used with traditional cooling fin arrangements, then heat removal capability is provided, but pressure drop is high and fan power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling fins are divided into multiple groups arranged in parallel, creating multiple separate flow paths for cooling air. This segmentation allows air to flow through multiple channels simultaneously, reducing the pressure drop in each individual path while maintaining overall heat dissipation effectiveness. The parallel arrangement distributes the airflow workload across multiple paths.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extends the cooling fin structure in the depth direction (z-axis) to create three-dimensional flow paths. By adding depth to the cooling fin groups and creating multi-level structures, the design increases the available flow cross-section without increasing the frontal area, thereby reducing pressure drop while maintaining heat transfer surface area.
2Temperature
If cooling fins are added to increase heat dissipation surface area, then heat removal efficiency improves, but device complexity and pressure drop increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling fin groups serve multiple functions simultaneously: they provide heat dissipation surface area, create flow paths for cooling air, and structure the air flow distribution. The same structural elements (cooling fins) perform both heat transfer and flow guidance functions, reducing the need for additional separate components and simplifying the overall device structure.
3Use of energy by stationary object
If more cooling fins are used to reduce pressure drop, then fan power consumption decreases, but the heat exchanger occupies more space
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes the depth dimension (z-axis) to create parallel flow paths, allowing the heat exchanger to achieve low pressure drop characteristics without proportionally increasing the frontal area. By extending structures in the depth direction, the design increases flow capacity while maintaining a compact overall volume.
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
This design allows for more efficient heat removal from integrated circuits, enabling higher processing speeds without overheating, while reducing fan power consumption and noise.
Implementation Method 1
heat pipes rely on phase transition (e.g., evaporation of a liquid) to efficiently transfer heat between two solid interfaces
Implementation Method 2
the at least one heat pipe is thermally coupled to the IC and has an evaporator portion and a condenser portion
Implementation Method 3
a heat exchanger transfers heat from a chip to ambient air, and the air then carries the heat away from the chip
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic device includes an integrated circuit and a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger includes a heat pipe and a first plurality of cooling fins and a second plurality of cooling fins. The heat pipe is thermally coupled to the integrated circuit and has an evaporator portion and a condenser portion, where the condenser portion extends away from the evaporator portion. The first plurality of cooling fins are attached to the condenser portion and proximate to the evaporation portion and form a plenum having a first associated pressure drop when a cooling fluid flows across the first plurality of cooling fins at a first velocity. The second plurality of cooling fins are attached to the condenser portion and distal from the evaporation portion and form a flow path having a second associated pressure drop when the cooling fluid flows across the second plurality of cooling fins at the first velocity.