Variable Thickness Heat Pipe for Thin Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Thin-profile devices face challenges in balancing the size and cooling capacity of their cooling systems, as they need to fit into tight spaces while maintaining sufficient heat dissipation to prevent overheating.
Innovation Solution
A cooling system is designed with a heat pipe that has a thicker mid-portion and thinner end portions, allowing it to be compactly stacked while maintaining low thermal resistance and effective heat removal, utilizing a variable thickness casing and wick structure to enhance heat transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the heat pipe is made thinner to fit into tight spaces, then the device profile is reduced, but the cooling capacity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The heat pipe employs variable thickness design where the mid-portion has greater thickness than the end portions. This local quality variation allows the thickest section to provide sufficient cooling capacity while thinner end portions reduce overall volume and enable compact stacking, resolving the contradiction between size and cooling performance
Solution Approach 2:
The heat pipe transitions from a uniform two-dimensional cross-section to a three-dimensional variable thickness structure. The mid-portion extends further in the thickness dimension while end portions remain thinner, enabling compact stacking in the vertical dimension while maintaining thermal performance through the thicker mid-section
2Reliability
If the heat pipe mid-portion is made thicker to reduce thermal resistance, then heat transfer efficiency improves, but the device profile increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heat pipe employs variable thickness design where the mid-portion has greater thickness than the end portions. This local quality variation allows the thickest section to provide sufficient cooling capacity while thinner end portions reduce overall volume and enable compact stacking, resolving the contradiction between size and cooling performance
Solution Approach 2:
The heat pipe is segmented into distinct portions with different thicknesses: a thicker mid-portion for heat transfer and thinner end portions for compactness. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized for its specific function, balancing thermal performance with size constraints
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 solution effectively increases cooling capacity and reduces thermal resistance, enabling efficient heat dissipation in limited spaces, thus addressing the size and cooling capacity balance in thin-profile devices.
Implementation Method 1
a heat pipe coupling to the heat spreader and the radiator. The heat pipe may have a midline therealong. The heat pipe includes a first end portion extending longitudinally along the midline, a second end portion extending longitudinally along the midline, and a mid-portion extending longitudinally along the midline
Implementation Method 2
maintaining low thermal resistance and effective heat removal
Implementation Method 3
a wick enclosed in the casing
Data Source
AI summary
In one aspect, a cooling system is provided for use in computing devices, such as laptops, cell phones, and tablet computers. The cooling system includes a heat spreader coupled to a radiator via a heat pipe having a midline. The heat pipe includes a first end portion longitudinally extending along the midline, a second end portion longitudinally extending along the midline, and a mid-portion longitudinally extending along the midline. The mid-portion is located between the first end portion and the second end portion and it has a thickness that is greater than the thicknesses of both the first portion and the second portion thereby reducing the overall thermal resistance of the heat pipe.