Abstract: To manage heat in a computer environment or the like, a base plate and/or a input/output (I/O) plate includes an integrated heat pipe. For example, the base plate, located between a bottom surface of a laptop computer chassis and a printed circuit board (PCB) or motherboard would include a heat-pipe network that draws heat away from the heat generating components of the PCB (e.g., a processor) and distributes the heat over the base plate. The I/O plate may also serve the same purpose, located at an end of the PCB. The base plate heat pipe and I/O plate heat pipe are thermally coupled together or are of a unitary design so as to distribute the heat generated in the laptop computer over a larger area achieving a relatively low-temperature isothermal design.

Abstract: An integrated circuit cooling device in which a thermoelectric module (TEM) is built into a printed circuit board (PCB) so that the TEM converts heat generated by an integrated circuit on the PCB into DC power that is then supplied to a DC--DC regulator to drive a cooling fan. In one embodiment, the cooling fan is incorporated within a heat sink disposed on one side of the PCB so that the built-in TEM is between the heat sink and the integrated circuit being cooled. In an alternate embodiment, the cooling fan is located remotely from the heat sink.