HIGH PERFORMANCE SPREADER FOR LID COOLING APPLICATIONS

• US 20090323276A1
• Filed: 06/24/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Varadarajan, Krishnakumar, Mongia, Rajiv K., Bhattacharya, Anandaroop
• Application Number:
  US12/491,097
• Publication Number:
  US 20090323276A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 361/679.52
• CPC Class Codes: F28D 15/0266 with separate evaporating and condensing chambers connected by at least one conduit; Loop-type heat pipes; with multiple or common evaporating or condensing chambers F28D15/043 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/203 for portable computers, e.g. for laptops
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/201 Cooling arrangements using cooling fluid
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49002 Electrical device making

Abstract

Apparatuses, systems, and methods for a heat spreader plate and pulsating heat pipes to transfer heat sourced from one or more electronic components are described herein. Other embodiments may also be described and claimed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processing unit;

a display communicatively coupled to the processing unit; and

a heat spreader plate thermally coupled to the display and/or the processing unit, the heat spreader plate having one or more pulsating heat pipes with each of the one or more pulsating heat pipes configured to contain a fluid within a sealed boundary, the heat spreader plate having a first section to operate as an evaporator in a presence of heat sourced from the display and/or the processing unit to induce a liquid-to-vapor phase change of fluid within a portion of the one or more pulsating heat pipes in the evaporator, and a second section to operate as a condenser to induce a vapor-to-liquid phase change of fluid within a portion of the one or more pulsating heat pipes in the condenser such that the fluid pulsates between the evaporator and the condenser to transfer heat sourced from the display and/or the processing unit to the condenser.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit includes a die package and the heat spreader plate is directly attached to the die package.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

a circuit board fastened to the heat spreader plate in a manner to secure direct attachment of the heat spreader plate to the die package.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is a laptop computing device.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the laptop computing device is a fanless laptop computing device.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a housing to house the display, the processing unit, and the heat spreader plate.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the housing includes a cover to house the display and a base to house the processing unit.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the cover is to further house the heat spreader plate.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a thermal hinge rotatably and thermally coupling the cover to the base.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the heat spreader plate has a thickness of approximately two millimeters or less.

11. An apparatus comprising:

one or more pulsating heat pipes, each of the one or more pulsating heat pipes configured to contain a fluid within a sealed boundary; and

a heat spreader plate having the one or more pulsating heat pipes integrated therein, the heat spreader plate configured to be disposed within a housing of a computing device and having a first section and a second section configured to operate as evaporators, when thermally coupled to respective first and second operating electronic components, to induce a liquid-to-vapor phase change of fluid within a portion of the one or more pulsating heat pipes in the evaporators, and a third section configured to operate as a condenser to induce a vapor-to-liquid phase change of fluid within one or more portions of the one or more pulsating heat pipes in the condenser such that the fluid pulsates between the evaporators and the condenser to transfer heat sourced from the first and second operating electronic components to the condenser.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first operating electronic component is a processing unit and the second operating electronic component is a controller.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more pulsating heat pipes include a pulsating heat pipe routed through the first section, the second section, and the third section.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more pulsating heat pipes include:

a first pulsating heat pipe routed through the first section and the third section; and

a second pulsating heat pipe routed through the second section and the third section.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein a cross-sectional area of the first pulsating heat pipe is different from a cross-sectional area of the second pulsating heat pipe.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more pulsating heat pipes comprise one or more wickless heat pipes.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more pulsating heat pipes are fully integrated into the heat spreader plate.

18. A method comprising:

forming one or more pulsating heat pipe channels integrally into a chassis of a mobile computing device;

bonding a cover plate to the chassis to form one or more pulsating heat pipes respectively corresponding to the one or more pulsating heat pipe channels;

evacuating the one or more pulsating heat pipes; and

partially filling the one or more pulsating heat pipes with a fluid.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said evacuating and partially filling is conducted through a valve and the method further comprises:

sealing the valve after said partially filling.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the chassis is a cover chassis of a laptop computing device and the method further comprises:

face coupling a display to the cover plate.