Printed circuit board with electronic devices mounted thereon

• US 6,052,284 A
• Filed: 07/29/1997
• Issued: 04/18/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Advantest Corporation
• Original Assignee: Advantest Corporation
• Inventors: Fujimoto, Akihiro, Suga, Kazunari
• Primary Examiner(s): Picard, Leo P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHERVINSKY, BORIS LEO
• Application Number:
  US08/902,154
• Time in Patent Office: 994 Days
• Field of Search: 361/689-694, 361/693, 361/699-704, 361/715, 361/719, 361/727, 361/756, 257/687, 257/714, 257/721, 257/722, 174/15.1, 174/16.1, 165/80.3, 165/80.4
• US Class Current: 361/699
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/473 by flowing liquids H01L23/4332, H01L23/4338 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0002 Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00

Abstract

A cooler-equipped printed circuit board, in which electronic devices arranged in a matrix form on the printed circuit board are covered with a sealed case held in liquidtight contact with the board and having a coolant channel from an inlet port and an outlet port made in the case. Barriers are provided in the coolant channel to change the direction of flow of the coolant to stir it and make its temperature uniform throughout it.

Claims

1. An electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board comprising:

a printed circuit board including an array of electronic devices mounted on at least one side thereof;

a sealed case covering said array of electronic devices, having its marginal edge held in liquidtight contact with said one side of said printed circuit board all around said array of electronic devices and including an inlet port injecting a coolant into an interior of said sealed case from the outside and an outlet port discharging said coolant from said sealed case to the outside,

wherein the interior of said sealed case forms a cooling chamber in which said electronic devices are immersed in said coolant injected through said inlet port and said coolant is distributed through said electronic devices and discharged to the outside through said outlet port;

another array of electronic devices mounted on another side of said printed circuit board;

a second sealed case mounted on a surface of said another side of said printed circuit board in a liquidtight manner for sealing therein said electronic devices;

a port bored through said printed circuit board near said inlet port to inject therethrough said coolant into said second sealed case; and

another port bored through said printed circuit board near said outlet port to discharge therethrough said coolant from said second sealed case.

2. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 1, wherein said cooling chamber has a plurality of barriers each extending into one of spaces between said electronic devices in the direction across their arrays so that a coolant channel from said inlet port to said outlet port meanders.

3. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 2, wherein:

said sealed case has a box-like configuration comprising a bottom panel and a pair of opposed side walls extending in the direction of said electronic device array;

said electronic devices are spaced apart; and

said barriers are extended between said electronic devices across their array alternately from one and the other of said opposed side walls to define clearances by extended ends of said barriers and said side walls opposite them, respectively, thereby making said coolant channel from said inlet port to said outlet port meander.

4. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 3, wherein said electronic device array is a 3 by 2 matrix array.

5. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 3, wherein said barriers are each extended from said bottom panel to said printed circuit board.

6. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 2, wherein said electronic device array is a matrix array and said barriers are staggered so that they do not overlap in columns of said matrix array.

7. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 6, wherein said matrix array of electronic devices is a matrix with at least 3 rows and at least 2 columns and said barriers are disposed so that the barriers in two arbitrary adjacent spaces between the electronic devices in the row direction are alternately extended across the spaces between said electronic devices in the column direction.

8. An electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board comprising:

a printed circuit board including a matrix array of electronic devices mounted on at least one side thereof, said matrix array comprising an array of four columns of electronic devices and at least three rows of electronic devices; and

a sealed case covering said array of electronic devices, having its marginal edge held in liquidtight contact with said one side of said printed circuit board all around said array of electronic devices, and including an inlet port injecting a coolant into an interior of said sealed case from outside and an outlet port discharging said coolant from said sealed case to the outside, said interior of said sealed case forming a cooling chamber in which said electronic devices are immersed in said coolant injected through said inlet port, wherein coolant is distributed through said electronic devices and discharged to the outside through said outlet port, said sealed case forming a box-like configuration comprising;

a bottom panel,

a pair of opposed side walls extending toward said electronic device array, and

a pair of opposed end walls joining opposite ends of said side walls, respectively;

said sealed case further comprising a partition wall extending from one of said end walls toward the other of said end walls to form a clearance between the partition wall and said other of said end walls and dividing said matrix array of electronic devices into two sub-matrix arrays by column, thereby providing a substantially U-shaped coolant channel from said inlet port to said outlet port in said cooling chamber, wherein;

each of said two sub-matrix arrays is an array of two columns of electronic devices;

barriers are extended from said partition wall and each of said side walls and alternately project into spaces between the rows defined by said electronic devices of said two columns of each of said two sub-matrix arrays; and

one of the ends of each of said barriers are spaced apart from said partition wall and said one side wall to make said U-shaped coolant channel meander.

9. The electronic-devices-mounted printed circuit board of claim 8, wherein:

said partition wall is extended from said bottom panel and one of said end walls and has the same height as said side walls and said end walls;

said barriers are extended from at least one of said bottom panel, said side walls and said partition wall and have the same height as said side walls and said partition wall; and

the extended ends of said barriers in the row direction and said side wall and said partition wall in the direction of extension of said barriers define therebetween clearances which permit the passage therethrough of said coolant.

10. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 8, wherein said barriers are formed integrally with said bottom panel.

11. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 8, wherein said barriers are fixed to said printed circuit board.

12. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 8, wherein said barriers each have a through hole.

13. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 8, further comprising sealing means comprising a groove cut in a marginal edge of said sealed case all around it and an elastic O ring packing fitted in said groove and pressed against said printed circuit board.

14. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 13, wherein a metallic pattern is predeposited over the surface area of said printed circuit board against which said elastic O ring packing fitted in said groove cut in said marginal edge of said sealed case is pressed to provide liquidtight sealing.

15. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 14, wherein said metallic pattern is a copper pattern.

16. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 14, wherein said metallic pattern is plated with gold.

17. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 8, further comprising another array of electronic devices mounted on another side of said printed circuit board, and a second sealed case mounted on a surface of said another side of said printed circuit board in a liquidtight manner for sealing therein said electronic devices.

18. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 8, further comprising a second electronic device disposed on said printed circuit board but outside said sealed case so that it is subjected to forced cooling.

19. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 8, wherein projections protrusively provided on two opposed marginal edges of said printed circuit board for engagement with guide grooves of guide means of semiconductor test equipment.

20. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 8, wherein projections protrusively provided on two opposed side walls of said sealed case for engagement with guide grooves of guide means of semiconductor test equipment.

21. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 8, wherein grooves are cut in two opposed side walls of said sealed case for engagement with guide projections of semiconductor test equipment.

22. An electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board comprising:

a printed circuit board including an array of electronic devices mounted on at least one side thereof;

a sealed case covering said array of electronic devices, having its marginal edge held in liquidtight contact with said one side of said printed circuit board all around said array of electronic devices, and including an inlet port injecting a coolant into an interior of said sealed case from outside and an outlet port discharging said coolant from said sealed case to the outside, said interior of said sealed case forming a cooling chamber in which said electronic devices are immersed in said coolant injected through said inlet port, wherein coolant is distributed through said electronic devices and discharged to the outside through said outlet port, said sealed case forming a box-like configuration comprising;

a bottom panel,

a pair of opposed side walls extending toward said electronic device array, and

a pair of opposed end walls joining opposite ends of said side walls, respectively;

said sealed case further comprising a partition wall extending from one of said end walls toward the other of said end walls to form a clearance between the partition wall and said other of said end walls and dividing said array of electronic devices into two sub-matrix arrays by column, thereby providing a substantially U-shaped coolant channel from said inlet port to said outlet port in said cooling chamber;

independent barriers each inserted in one of alternate spaces between rows of said electronic devices of each submatrix array and extended into a space between columns of each submatrix array and between said electronic devices, both ends of each of said independent barriers being opposed to and spaced apart from each of said side walls and said partition wall to define therebetween coolant by-pass channels; and

two barriers alternately extended from said each side wall and said partition wall toward each other and projecting into spaces adjacent to said alternate ones between rows of said electronic devices, extended ends of said two barriers being opposed to and spaced apart from each other to define therebetween a central channel.

23. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 22, wherein said barriers and said independent barriers are fixed to said printed circuit board.

24. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 22, wherein said barriers and said independent barriers each have a through hole.

25. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 22, further comprising sealing means comprising a groove cut in a marginal edge of said sealed case all around it and an elastic O ring packing fitted in said groove and pressed against said printed circuit board.

26. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 22, further comprising another array of electronic devices mounted on another side of said printed circuit board, and a second sealed case mounted on a surface of said another side of said printed circuit board in a liquidtight manner for sealing therein said electronic devices.

27. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 22, further comprising a second electronic device disposed on said printed circuit board but outside said sealed case so that it is subjected to forced cooling.

28. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 22, wherein projections protrusively provided on two opposed marginal edges of said printed circuit board for engagement with guide grooves of guide means of semiconductor test equipment.

29. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 22, wherein projections protrusively provided on two opposed side walls of said sealed case for engagement with guide grooves of guide means of semiconductor test equipment.

30. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 22, wherein grooves are cut in two opposed side walls of said sealed case for engagement with guide projections of semiconductor test equipment.

31. The electronic-devices-mounted, printed circuit board of claim 22, wherein said partition wall, said barriers and said independent barriers are formed integrally with said bottom panel to about a same height as said side walls and said end walls.