Flat Heat Pipe Radiator and Portable Computer
A flat heat pipe radiator and a new kind of portable computer are provided. The air convective extended heat exchange surface of the radiator surrounds the fan impeller and is facing the air outlet of the impeller, the heat transport distance in heat pipe is shortened, the fan shell and the diffusion channel in the shell can be left out, so the size, weight and cost of the radiator are decreased effectively. The restrictions to a radiator when installing are reduced, which helps to implement the standardization of the radiator series. The new kind of portable computer helps to decrease weight and thickness and improve the heat dissipation further.
This is a Continuation application of a non-provisional application having an application Ser. No. 12/733,924, and a filing date of Mar. 24, 2010, which is a 371 national phase application of an international application number PCT/CN2008/071772 and filing date Jul. 28, 2008, which claimed priority of three foreign applications, #1: 200710077392.1, filing date: Sep. 29, 2007, filing country: CHINA; #2: 200810067796.7, filing date: Jun. 18, 2008, filing country: CHINA; and #3: 200810067795.2, filing date: Jun. 18, 2008, filing country: CHINA. The contents of these specifications, including any intervening amendments thereto, are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic heat dissipating device and portable computer, and more particularly to a flat radiator with heat pipe for cooling the electronic chips (CPU or GPU) in the portable computer, and a flat-panel computer with a screen cover and a keyboard.
2. Description of Related Arts
As the higher demands of thinner and multi-functional portable devices, especially the CPU and GPU, the thermal design for the heat dissipating of the whole system has become a bottleneck to the improvement of portable computer's performance. The radiator affixed to the CPU or GPU is like the shell on a snail, and it has occupied quite much room of the portable computer, so cutting down the thickness of portable computer is restricted by the radiator.
The structure of the radiator of current notebook computer is as follows. It has a centrifugal fan with a shell which is usually a helicoid shaped shell and has a centralized air outlet. The air convective extended heat exchange surface, which is usually a fin structure, briefly called fin, is located at the air outlet. Usually heat pipes are used to transport the heat produced by the CPU to the fin.
The disadvantages of this design include the followings. First, the air outlet is easily blocked, it will cause that the heat can't be dissipated. Second, the wind driven by the fan is directly vented after flowing through the fin, and is unable to be further utilized. Next, the shell of the fan takes up much room of the fan, so that in order to reduce the volume, the shape of the shell isn't standard helicoid shape, which results in much more air vortex loss, and asymmetrical air flow at the air outlet, and it is unbeneficial to heat dissipation. Last, because of the restriction of the line layout, the CPU should be located near the center of the motherboard, so that the distance between the fin and the CPU is so long that long heat pipes are needed, and the distance between the vaporizing area and the condensing area of the heat pipe is longer, and the heat transport capacity becomes less.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTIONIn order to overcome the disadvantages of the above, the present invention changes the position of the fin, so that the shell of the fan is left out, and the distance between the vaporizing area and the condensing area of the heat pipe is shortened, and an intensified heat transfer structure is introduced to reduce the size of the fin. So the radiator's structure is simpler, smaller and thinner, and the heat transfer capacity is higher. So we can make out thinner and more convenient portable computers with simpler structure.
The blue print of the present invention is as follow: The radiator comprises heat pipe, air convective extended heat exchange surface and centrifugal fan. The shape of the whole radiator is flat shape like. The characteristics of the present invention are that: the air convective extended heat exchange surface is bonded or welded on the heat pipe; the air convective extended heat exchange surface surrounds the fan impeller, facing the air outlet of the fan impeller, so that the air from the fan impeller is blew directly into the air convective extended heat exchange surface.
The fin structure of air convective extended heat exchange surface is the most popular, it is a kind of structure that increases the area of air convection heat exchange effectually and cuts down the size to make the radiator compact, for example, it is used in the condenser and evaporator of air-condition. The present radiator of CPU has this structure too.
The pin structure is not popular because of the high manufacturing cost, but the air convection heat transfer coefficient is more than twice of the fin structure. Compact structure and small size are very important for notebooks, so the pin structure is also adopted too.
Usually heat pipes are tubular structure, whose both ends are blocked, the interior is vacuum and filled with working fluid. The present invention adopts not only tubular structure, but also plate type. For the plate heat pipe, the ratio of its width with its thickness is so large that it can only be curved in the thickness direction. In the present invention, the ratio is decided to be more than 5, it is named a plate heat pipe differentiate from a tubular heat pipe.
The outer circle of the centrifugal fan impeller is the air outlet of the impeller, when the impeller rotating, air flows out equably from the outer circle of the impeller. The air convective extended heat exchange surfaces are set to surround the impeller, and are facing to the air outlet of the impeller, so the air coming from the impeller goes into the air convective extended heat exchange surface directly. The advantages of this structure are as follows.
1. Increasing the length of setting the air convective extended heat exchange surface, it results in that the speed of the air through the air convective extended heat exchange surface can be reduced, so as to have lower airflow resistance, and more air flux.
2. The fan can be set at a position near the electronic chips, this structure shortens the distance between vaporizing area and condensing area of heat pipe very much, so as to increase the heat transport capacity of the heat pipe.
3. Abandoning the fan shell is one of the most significant advantages, it decreases the room, weight and cost of the shell, the room of the diffusion channel in the shell is left out, and the air vortex loss in the shell is avoided. The air from the radiator can not be vented out of the mainframe shell directly, and can be used to cool other components.
4. The air convective extended heat exchange surface can be arranged in square, polygon or other shapes to surround the impeller of the fan. However, the best way is to arrange the air convective extended heat exchange surface circularly around the impeller, and the gap between the heat exchange surface and the impeller is as small as possible. The reasons of the above are as described as follows: First, the air can flow uniformly through the air convective extended heat exchange surface, without the influence of some placket or block surrounding the impeller. Second, it further decreases the room between the air convective extended heat exchange surface and the impeller.
Now the radiator of the present invention just only makes up of heat pipe, fan and air convective extended heat exchange surface, and there is no other part can be left out. The gap between impeller and air convective extended heat exchange surface is necessary for avoiding impeller to be collided or clamped.
It explains hereinbefore that arranging the air convective extended heat exchange surface to surround the impeller of a fan is the most compact structure. In order to cut down the size of the radiator further, we can only make some improvement on the air convective extended heat exchange surface and the fan, for example: Adopting the structure of strengthening convection heat transfer, to increase the coefficient of the convection heat transfer; Increasing the density of the air convective extended heat exchange surface, it can increase the area of heat exchange surface not only, and also the coefficient of the convection heat transfer can be improved; Optimizing the design of the impeller and increasing the rotate speed to cut down the diameter or thickness of the impeller.
In the present invention, at least half of the outer circle of the impeller is surrounded by the air convective extended heat exchange surface, it is just to indicate that the whole outer circle of the impeller should be utilized effectually to set the air convective extended heat exchange surface for decreasing idle room.
There is no wind cover and centralized air outlet, so the position of the radiator is not limited very much, it can be placed anywhere on the motherboard following CPU and GPU as long as keeping the air inlet unblocked. The radiator becomes a smaller and lighter part which does not take up the much room in the notebook computer any more, so that radiator can be divided into some series according to the heat dissipating capacity and thickness, and to establish standardization of the radiator, so that we can establish a standardization of the notebook case and the motherboard.
These and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.
The conduction block 1 abuts against the impeller 3 to cut down the distance between the vaporizing area and the condensing area effectually. Because of the limit of bending radius, the heat pipe can not be bended to surround the whole impeller (360°), there is an opening near the conduction block 1, as
In
In order to reduce the distance between the vaporizing area and the condensing area, the two fans 5 are closed to heat-absorbing surface 7, the part of the air convective extended heat exchange surface conflicting with the chip to be cooled is taken out, as
When there are two or more chips to be cooled on a PCB, we can use this mean: one fan takes on two or more heat-absorbing surfaces, as
The fin 15 in
At the air outlet of the impeller, namely, the outer circle of the impeller, the air speed can be separated into radial velocity and circumferential velocity. If the impeller shape is different, the distribution of the radial velocity and circumferential velocity is different, for the forward curved blade, the circumferential velocity is higher than that of backwards curved blade. Whatever type of impeller the circumferential velocity exists, and its direction accords with the direction of the impeller rotating.
When the fins set at the air outlet of the impeller are arrayed radially, there is an angle, called attack angle in aerodynamics, between the front edge of the fin and the direction of the airflow out of the impeller. When the attack angle is bigger, the flowing resistance of the air flowing through fins is bigger, and it will cause reducing of the air flux, that is bad for heat dissipation. In order to cut down the attack angle, the fin 15 surrounding the impeller 3 can be set to incline forward the rotating direction of the impeller 3, as
We can also curve or bend the air inlet front edge of the fin 15 surrounding the impeller 3 against the rotating direction of the impeller 3, as
In order to cut down the fin size, intensified air convection heat transfer structure is used in the fin.
The portable computers shown in
The display screen is on the mainframe and the keyboard is on the screen cover, when in open state the mainframe stands up askew on the interior of the screen cover used, it is different from the traditional notebooks. The advantages include that: 1. the heat dissipating capacity is increased, the wall of the shell can be used as heat dissipation surface, and the air inlet and outlet are not blocked easily, as the figures show that the air inlet 20 is opened at the back shell 27; 2. it needs only a shell and the display shell is left out, so the computer thickness is decreased; 3. the keyboard can be of several kinds of structures, like the thin film key-press; 4. the screen cover not only protects the display screen, but also be as the base of the mainframe when upright, and we can set a battery in the screen cover as backup battery, which can be replaced conveniently.
In
In
In
It is appreciated that the hard discs in the present invention include mechanism hard discs and solid state discs.
It will thus be seen that the objects of the present invention have been fully and effectively achieved. It embodiments have been shown and described for the purposes of illustrating the functional and structural principles of the present invention and is subject to change without departure from such principles. Therefore, this invention includes all modifications encompassed within the spirit and scope of the following claims.
Claims
1. A flat radiator with heat pipe for cooling electronic chips, comprising at least one heat pipe, at least one air convective extended heat exchange surface and one or more fans which are a kind of the centrifugal type fan,
- wherein said air convective extended heat exchange surface surrounds the impeller of said fan, and is facing the air outlet of said impeller; and
- more than half of outer circle of said impeller is surrounded by said air convective extended heat exchange surface.
2. The radiator, as recited in claim 1, wherein said air convective extended heat exchange surface adopts a pin structure
3. The radiator, as recited in claim 1, wherein said air convective extended heat exchange surface adopts a fin structure, said fins surrounding said impeller in an arc shape have a structure that the fin blades of said fins are curved or bended and the channel between the two adjacent curved or bended fin blades is not straight, and the air inlet front edge of said fin blade curves or bends against the rotating direction of said impeller.
4. The radiator, as recited in claim 1, wherein said air convective extended heat exchange surface adopts a fin structure, said fins surrounding said impeller in an arc shape have a structure that the fin blades of said fins incline toward the rotating direction of said impeller
5. The radiator, as recited in claim 1, wherein said air convective extended heat exchange surface adopts a fin structure, said fins have an intensifying air convection heat transfer structure that the surface of the fin blade of said fin is cut into several discontinuous segments to form a staggered short fin structure.
6. The radiator, as recited in claim 1, wherein said air convective extended heat exchange surface adopts a fin structure, said fins have an intensifying air convection heat transfer structure that the surface of the fin blade of said fin is cut into several discontinuous segments to form a louvered short fin structure.
7. The radiator, as recited in claim 6, wherein the bend direction of said louvered fin is against the rotating direction of said impeller to form the edge of air inlet being bended against the rotating direction of said impeller.
8. The radiator, as recited in claim 1, wherein said heat pipe is made of two metallic plates, the two metallic plates are connected together with buckle and welding, and there are welding points at the middle of said heat pipe inside.
9. The radiator, as recited in claim 1, wherein said heat pipe is a kind of plate type, a part of said heat pipe at said fan is concave and a part of said fan is within the concave.
10. A portable computer, comprising:
- a mainframe which is a flat-panel computer;
- a keyboard, and a screen cover having a backside edge which is adjacent to the downside of said mainframe when said mainframe and said screen cover are folded together,
- wherein said keyboard is set on the inside of said screen cover; and said mainframe and said screen cover are connected by a linking device;
- wherein when said mainframe and said screen cover are folded together, said screen cover covers the display screen of said mainframe and said keyboard is covered by said mainframe;
- wherein when said mainframe is opened to stand up to be a keyboard tying position, the downside of said mainframe moves toward said keyboard from the position that is adjacent to said backside edge of said screen cover, and stands up askew on the interior of said screen cover at the position between said keyboard and said backside edge of said screen cover, said screen cover is the base of said mainframe.
11. The portable computer, as recited in claim 10, wherein the wall of the back shell of said mainframe is used as a convection and radiation heat dissipating surface of the CPU or GPU chip of said mainframe.
12. The portable computer, as recited in claim 11, wherein a flat radiator with heat pipe as recited in claim 1 is used for cooling the CPU or GPU chip of said mainframe, said heat pipe is set on said back shell.
13. The portable computer, as recited in claim 10, wherein said linking device between said mainframe and said screen cover adopts a strut connection, said strut is also used to sustain the mainframe to stand up askew.
14. The portable computer, as recited in claim 10, wherein said linking device between said mainframe and said screen cover adopts a sliding axle with runner connection, said sliding axle with runner connection has a structure for the downside of said mainframe moving along said screen cover when said mainframe being opened to be a keyboard tying position.
15. The portable computer, as recited in claim 10, wherein said linking device between said mainframe and said screen cover adopts a structure that users separate said mainframe from said screen cover without any tool.
16. The portable computer, as recited in claim 14, wherein said linking device between said mainframe and said screen cover adopts a structure that users separate said mainframe from said screen cover without any tool, said structure for said mainframe being separated from said screen cover is a structure that at the outside on said runner there is an opening for said sliding axle sliding out.
17. The portable computer, as recited in claim 10, wherein there is a backup battery set on the inside of said screen cover and at the position between said keyboard and said backside edge of said screen cover, said backup battery is a plate structure.
18. The portable computer, as recited in claim 10, wherein there is a backup battery covering the outside of said screen cover.
19. The portable computer, as recited in claim 10, wherein at least an air inlet is opened at the back shell of said mainframe.
20. The portable computer, as recited in claim 10, wherein there are electric touch points between the downside of said mainframe and said screen cover for the electrical connection between said mainframe and said screen cover.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 8, 2014
Publication Date: Nov 27, 2014
Inventor: Biao QIN (Shenzhen)
Application Number: 14/455,209
International Classification: G06F 1/20 (20060101); F28D 15/02 (20060101); G06F 1/16 (20060101);