U.S. patent application number 11/238555 was filed with the patent office on 2006-04-06 for fluidized bed cooler for electronic components.
This patent application is currently assigned to Industrial Design Laboratories Inc.. Invention is credited to Lev Fedoseyev, Edward Lopatinsky.
Application Number | 20060070723 11/238555 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 36124383 |
Filed Date | 2006-04-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060070723 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Lopatinsky; Edward ; et
al. |
April 6, 2006 |
Fluidized bed cooler for electronic components
Abstract
A fluidized bed cooler comprises a blower and a heatsink with a
base and heat exchanging means. The blower comprises an electric
drive with a stator and a rotor, an impeller and a casing with
blower inlet and outlet. The base made as a heat spreader with a
plate and provides a thermal contact with the electronic components
and the heat exchanging means. The heat exchanging means are
surrounded by a housing thus forms a fluidized bed chamber with
inflow and outflow side openings. The fluidized bed chamber
partially filled up with particulate solids and covered from both
openings by intake and outtake grilled structures. The blower
hydraulically connected by the inlet with the outflow side opening,
so cooling gas flows through the inflow side opening, the fluidized
bed chamber thus fluidizing the particulate solids, the outflow
side opening, the blower inlet, the impeller and the blower
outlet.
Inventors: |
Lopatinsky; Edward; (San
Diego, CA) ; Fedoseyev; Lev; (El Cajon, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Edward Lopatinsky
5450 Complex St. # 307
San Diego
CA
92123
US
|
Assignee: |
Industrial Design Laboratories
Inc.
|
Family ID: |
36124383 |
Appl. No.: |
11/238555 |
Filed: |
September 29, 2005 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
60615004 |
Oct 2, 2004 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
165/104.16 ;
165/104.33; 165/80.2; 257/E23.099 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H01L 2924/0002 20130101;
H01L 2924/0002 20130101; H01L 2924/00 20130101; H01L 23/467
20130101; F28D 13/00 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
165/104.16 ;
165/080.2; 165/104.33 |
International
Class: |
F28D 13/00 20060101
F28D013/00 |
Claims
1. A fluidized bed cooler for electronic components comprising: a
blower and a heatsink comprising a base and heat exchanging means,
wherein (i) said blower comprising an electric drive with a stator
and a magnetized rotor, an impeller and a casing with blower inlet
and outlet; (ii) said base being made as a heat spreader with a
plate and providing a thermal contact with said electronic
components and said heat exchanging means; (iii) said heat
exchanging means being surrounded by a housing thus forming a
fluidized bed chamber with inflow and outflow side openings; (iv)
said fluidized bed chamber partially being filled up with
particulate solids and being covered from said both openings by
intake and outtake grilled structures; (v) said blower
hydraulically connected by said inlet with said outflow side
opening, so cooling gas flows through said inflow side opening,
said fluidized bed chamber thus fluidizing said particulate solids,
said outflow side opening, said blower inlet, said impeller and
said blower outlet in a series way.
2. The fluidized bed cooler as claimed in claim 1, wherein said
heat exchanging means being spacing apart from each other at a
distance of at least 20 mean sizes of said particulate solids.
3. The fluidized bed cooler as claimed in claim 1, wherein said
heat exchanging means being made as parallel vertical located fins
surrounding by a box-shaped housing.
4. The fluidized bed cooler as claimed in claim 3, wherein said
plate being located horizontally at a bottom part of said cooler
thus serving for horizontal located electronic components.
5. The fluidized bed cooler as claimed in claim 3, wherein said
plate being located vertically at a side part of said cooler thus
serving for vertical located electronic components.
6. The fluidized bed cooler as claimed in claim 1, wherein said
heat exchanging means being made as radial vertical located fins
surrounding by a cylinder-shaped housing.
7. The fluidized bed cooler as claimed in claim 6, wherein said
plate being located horizontally at a bottom part of said cooler
thus serving for horizontal located electronic components.
8. The fluidized bed cooler as claimed in claim 6, wherein said
plate being located vertically at a side part of said cooler thus
serving for vertical located electronic components.
9. The fluidized bed cooler as claimed in claim 1, wherein said
heat exchanging means and said housing further comprising
electromagnetic coils creating an alternating motive
electromagnetic field and said particulate solids being made from
magnetizable material thus said particulate solids realizing a
recirculation motion inside said fluidized bed chamber.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims the benefit of priority of
U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/615,004, filed
10/02/2004 for Edward Lopatinsky and Lev Fedoseyev the entire
content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates generally to heat exchange
apparatuses using fluidized bed technology. More particularly, the
present invention relates to active type coolers for cooling of
electronic devices. The present invention is particularly, but not
exclusively, useful for cooling systems for regulating the
temperature of electronic components of desktop computers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] The regulation of the temperature due to heat generated
inside the housing of an electronic device is an important
consideration during the design of an electronic device. Cooling is
important because if left unchecked, heat can cause electronic
devices to malfunction during use or lead to premature device
failure. As improvements in processor size and speed occur, the
amount of heat generated by the larger and faster processors also
increases. Additionally, improved processors require larger power
supplies and auxiliary components that generate increased amounts
of heat and require improved systems for heat removal.
[0004] Another factor that aggravates the need for improved heat
removal cooling systems is the trend towards making computing
devices smaller. The trend toward smaller electronic devices having
larger, faster processors renders the traditional heat removal
cooling systems inadequate for several reasons.
[0005] In order to enhance the cooling capacity of a cooling
device, an electrically powered blowers of different types such as
axial, radial or crossflow are often mounted within or on top of a
heatsink of the cooling device. In operation, the blower forces air
to pass over fins of the heatsink, thus, cooling the heatsink by
enhancing the heat transfer from the fins into the ambient air.
[0006] There are known devices of these types. For example, U.S.
Pat. No. 6,698,505 "Cooler for an Electronic Device" comprises a
crossflow blower, No. 6,152,214 "Cooling Device and Method"
comprises an axial blower and No. 6,244,331 "Heatsink with
Integrated Blower for Improved Heat Transfer" and No. 6,664,673
"Cooler for Electronic Devices" comprise a radial blower.
[0007] Due to the modern requirements for cooling devices,
especially in respect to a combination of the thermal efficiency
and an available space, the further enhancement of the cooling
efficiency providing by the increasing of the blower supplied power
(airflow increasing) and/or by the sufficient developing of the
heat exchanging surface of the heatsink.
[0008] However, mentioned increasing of the supplied power and the
heat exchanging surface became in contradiction with the modern
requirements for cooling devices. On the one hand, according to the
requirements the supplied power is limited. And on the other hand,
the increasing of the heat exchanging surface of the heatsink leads
to the increasing of the volume and/or mass properties of the
cooling devices and exceed the space limitations.
[0009] The other way to increase sufficiently the thermal
efficiency of cooling devices is the use one of heat exchange
intensification methods such as fluidized bed technology.
[0010] The fluidized bed (including miniaturized) technology is
widely used commercially in chemical, pharmaceutical, food and
other fields of industry. Usually fluidized bed technology used for
drying, coating, mixing and heating/cooling a product powder.
[0011] There are known devices and apparatuses using fluidizing bed
technology, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,000 "Fluid Bed Ash
Cooler", No. 6,214,065 "Method of Operating a Fluidized Bed Reactor
System, and Fluidized Bed Reactor System" and No. 6,451,274
"Depleted UF.sub.6 Processing Plant and Method for Processing
Depleted UF.sub.6".
[0012] All mentioned devices comprise a fluidized bed chamber
partially filled up with particulate solids and a source of
airflow. When an air is passed upwards through a bed of particles a
point is reached when the upward drag force exerted by the air on
the particles is equal to the apparent weight of particles in the
bed. At this point the particles are lifted by the air, the
separation of the particles increases, and the bed becomes
fluidized. But, there are non known designs of coolers for
electronic components using fluidized bed technology.
[0013] It would be desirable for the given space provide the
fluidized bed cooler for electronic components that would overcome
these problems associated with the contradiction between the
necessity of further enhancement of the cooling efficiency of
cooling devices and compliance with the space limitations at the
same time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0014] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to
provide a fluidized bed cooler for electronic components, which is
capable to improve significantly the thermal efficiency of cooling
devices.
[0015] In order to achieve this task, the fluidized bed cooler for
electronic components comprises a blower and a heatsink with a base
and heat exchanging means. The blower comprises an electric drive
with a stator and a magnetized rotor, an impeller and a casing with
blower inlet and outlet. The base is made as a heat spreader with a
plate and providing a thermal contact with the electronic
components and the heat exchanging means. The heat exchanging means
are surround by a housing thus forms a fluidized bed chamber with
inflow and outflow side openings. The fluidized bed chamber
partially filled up with particulate solids and covered from both
openings by intake and outtake grilled structures. The blower
hydraulically connected by the inlet with the outflow side opening,
so cooling gas flows through the inflow side opening, the fluidized
bed chamber thus fluidizing the particulate solids, the outflow
side opening, the blower inlet, the impeller and the blower outlet
in a series way.
[0016] The heat exchanging means are spaced apart from each other
at a distance of at least 20 mean sizes of the particulate
solids.
[0017] There are two embodiments of the present invention. First,
heat exchanging means may be made as parallel vertical located fins
surrounding by a box-shaped housing. For this embodiment there are
two options of the base plate location. According to the first
option the plate is located horizontally at a bottom part of the
cooler thus serving for horizontal located electronic components.
And, according to the second option, the plate is located
vertically at a side part of the cooler thus serving for vertical
located electronic components.
[0018] According to the second embodiment of the present invention,
the heat exchanging means are made as radial vertical located fins
surrounding by a cylinder-shaped housing. There are two options of
the base plate location, also. First, the plate is located
horizontally at a bottom part of the cooler thus serving for
horizontal located electronic components. And second, the plate may
locate vertically at a side part of the cooler thus serving for
vertical located electronic components.
[0019] The heat exchanging means and the housing may further
comprise electro-magnetic coils with a controller creating an
alternating motive electromagnetic field and the particulate solids
are made from magnetizable material thus the particulate solids
realizing a recirculation motion inside the fluidized bed
chamber.
[0020] The foregoing and other objectives, features and advantages
of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration
of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0021] FIG. 1 is a top perspective view showing the fluidized bed
cooler according to the first embodiment for horizontal located
electronic components.
[0022] FIG. 1A is a bottom perspective view of FIG. 1.
[0023] FIG. 2 is a top perspective view of the fluidized bed cooler
according to the first embodiment with removing of a part of the
box-shaped housing showing a part of the fluidized bed chamber at
the beginning of the operation.
[0024] FIG. 2A is the same of FIG. 2 during the operation.
[0025] FIG. 3 is an exploded view of FIG. 1.
[0026] FIG. 4 is a top perspective view showing the fluidized bed
cooler according to the first embodiment for vertical located
electronic components.
[0027] FIG. 4A is a bottom perspective view of FIG. 4.
[0028] FIG. 5 is a top perspective view of the fluidized bed cooler
according to the first embodiment with removing of a part of the
box-shaped housing showing a part of the fluidized bed chamber at
the beginning of the operation.
[0029] FIG. 5A is the same of FIG. 5 during the operation.
[0030] FIG. 6 is an exploded view of FIG. 4.
[0031] FIG. 7 is a top perspective view showing the fluidized bed
cooler according to the second embodiment.
[0032] FIG. 7A is a bottom perspective view of FIG. 7.
[0033] FIG. 8 is a top perspective view of the fluidized bed cooler
according to the second embodiment with removing of a part of the
cylinder-shaped housing showing a part of the fluidized bed chamber
at the beginning of the operation.
[0034] FIG. 8A is the same of FIG. 8 during the operation.
[0035] FIG. 9 is an exploded view of FIG. 7.
[0036] FIG. 10 is an enlarged top perspective view shoving a part
of the fluidized bed chamber with electromagnetic coils creating a
recirculation motion of particulate solids.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0037] Preferred embodiment of the present invention will be
described in detail below with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
[0038] FIGS. 1-10 show embodiments of the present invention.
[0039] The fluidized bed cooler I for electronic components 2
(FIGS. 1-9) comprises a blower 3 and a heatsink 4. The heatsink 4
comprises a base 5 and heat exchanging means 6. The blower 3
comprises an electric drive 7 with a stator and a magnetized rotor
(not shown), an impeller and a casing 11 with blower inlet 12 and
outlet 13.
[0040] The impeller 10 is made as a radial type impeller, thus the
blower 3 is the radial type blower. This type of the blower 3 is
the most effective for creating a required pressure to support the
fluidized bed process. The electric drive 7 may be used of any
conventional type, for example brushless DC flat electric motor.
The base 5 is made as a heat spreader 14 with a plate 15 and
provides a thermal contact with the electronic components 2 and the
heat exchanging means 6. The heat exchanging means 6 are surrounded
by a housing 16 thus forms a fluidized bed chamber 17 with inflow
18 and outflow 19 side openings. The fluidized bed chamber 17
partially filled up with particulate solids 20 and covered from
both openings 18 and 19 by intake 21 and outtake 22 grilled
structures. The blower 3 hydraulically connected by the inlet 12
with the outflow side opening 19, so cooling gas flows through the
inflow side opening 18, the fluidized bed chamber 17 thus
fluidizing the particulate solids 20 (FIGS. 2A, 5A and 8A), the
outflow side opening 19, the blower inlet 12, the impeller 10 and
the blower outlet 13 in a series way.
[0041] For the best fluidized bed process the heat exchanging means
6 are spaced apart from each other at a distance of at least 20
mean sizes of the particulate solids 20. The material of the
particulate solids 20 is not very important and may be sand, for
example.
[0042] There are two embodiments of the present invention. First,
heat exchanging means 6 may be made as parallel vertical located
fins 23 surrounding by a box-shaped housing 27 (FIGS. 1-6). For
this embodiment there are two options of the base plate 15
location. According to the first option (FIGS. 1-3) the plate 15 is
located horizontally at a bottom part of the cooler 1 thus serving
for horizontal located electronic components 2. And, according to
the second option (FIGS. 4-6), the plate 15 is located vertically
at a side part of the cooler 1 thus serving for vertical located
electronic components 2.
[0043] According to the second embodiment of the present invention
(FIGS. 7-9), the heat exchanging means 6 are made as radial
vertical located fins 28 surrounding by a cylinder-shaped housing
29. There are two options of the base plate 15 location, also.
First, the plate 15 is located horizontally at a bottom part of the
cooler 1 thus serving for horizontal located electronic components
2 (FIGS. 7-9). And second, the plate 15 might locate vertically at
a side part of the cooler 1 thus serving for vertical located
electronic components 2 (not shown).
[0044] For both embodiments the heat exchanging means 6 and the
housing 16 may further comprise electromagnetic coils 30 (FIG. 10)
with a controller (not shown) creating an alternating motive
electromagnetic field and the particulate solids 20 are made from
magnetizable material thus the particulate solids 20 realizing a
recirculation motion inside the fluidized bed chamber 17.
[0045] The fluidized bed cooler I for electronic components 2
operates in the following way. When an electric power supplied to
the stator 8 of the electric drive 7, the alternative
electro-magnetic field is created. This electromagnetic field
controlled by the controllers (not shown on Figs.) interacts with a
magnetic field created by the magnetized rotor 9. In result of this
interaction the magnetized rotor 9 and, therefore the impeller 10
of the blower 3, starts to rotate. Cooling gas starts moving and
flow through the fluidized bed chamber 17 thus fluidizing the
particulate solids 20. Heat generated by electronic components 2
transfers to the base 5 due its thermal contact and spreads to the
heat exchanging means 6. Cooling gas flow the heat exchanging means
6 and the intensive process of heat exchange take place.
[0046] Well known, that during the fluidized bed process a heat
exchange coefficient (heatsink-cooling gas) is more than 10 times
in comparison with the same parameter for known coolers for
electronic components. At the same time, the fluidized bed cooler
according to the present invention in relation to the particulate
solids size require more spacing between the heat exchanging means,
at least 5 times in comparison with known coolers for electronic
components. Therefore, for the same constrains comparative to
conventional technology, including available space, mass etc. the
fluidized bed cooler providing at least double in thermal
efficiency.
* * * * *