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Direct air contact liquid cooling system heat exchanger assembly

Direct air contact liquid cooling system heat exchanger assembly description/claims

The present application is related to, and claims priority from, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/917,965 filed on May 15, 2007, which is herein incorporated by reference.

Not Applicable.

The present invention is related generally to cooling systems associated with component circuit boards such as those installed in expansion slots of personal computer systems, and specifically, to a hybrid liquid-to-air cooling system adapted for use in cooling integrated circuit components, such as graphics processing units, installed on a component circuit board.

Personal computer systems which are design for desktop or under-desk use, and which are typically characterized by a main-board or motherboard housed in a chassis or case, often provide one or more expansion slots into which auxiliary components may be installed. These auxiliary components may include network adapter circuit boards, modems, specialized adapters, and graphics display adapters. These auxiliary components may receive power through the connection to the motherboard, or through additional connections directly to a system power supply contained within the chassis or case. Additional components, such as hard drives, disk drives, media readers, etc. may further be contained within the chassis or case, and coupled to the system power supply and motherboard as needed.

During operation, the motherboard and various auxiliary components consume power and generate heat. To ensure proper functionality of the computer system, it is necessary to regulate the operating temperatures inside the environment of the chassis or case. Individual integrated circuits, especially memory modules and processors, may generate significant amounts of heat during operation, resulting in localized hot spots within the chassis environment. The term “processors”, as used herein, and as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, describes a wide range of components, which may include dedicated graphics processing units, microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, and general system processors such as those manufactured and sold by Intel and AMD. Failure to maintain adequate temperature control throughout the chassis environment, and at individual integrated circuits, can significantly degrade the system performance and may eventually lead to component failure.

Traditionally, one or more cooling fans are associated with the system power supply, to circulate air throughout the chassis environment, and to exchange the high temperature internal air with cooler external air. However, as personal computer systems include increasing numbers of individual components and integrated circuits, and applications become more demanding on additional processing components such as graphics display adapters, a system power supply cooling fan may be inadequate to maintain the necessary operating temperatures within the enclosed chassis environment.

Specialized liquid cooling systems are available for some components in a personal computer system. Specialized liquid cooling systems typically required a coolant circulation pathway through which a coolant or thermal transfer liquid, often driven by an impeller is circulated. The circulation pathway routes the thermal transfer liquid between a heat exchanger such as a radiator and a heat source, such as a CPU, GPU, microprocessor or transformer. Specialized liquid cooling systems are well adapted for maintaining adequate operating temperatures for individual components. However, these specialized liquid cooling systems are not easily adapted for use with a wide variety of components or adapter boards in a personal computer system, and are often bulky and noisy during operation.

Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a hybrid liquid-air cooling system which may be easily adapted to provide a compact and quiet liquid cooling mechanism for use with a wide range of components or adapter boards in a personal computer system, and which functions cooperatively with an air cooling system.

Briefly stated, the present disclosure provides a compact heat exchanger assembly for use with hybrid liquid-air cooling system which is generally adapted to provide a liquid cooling mechanism for use with a wide range of semiconductor components or adapter circuit boards installed in a personal computer system, and which functions cooperatively with an air cooling system. The heat exchanger assembly consists of a heat exchanger chamber, though which the thermal transfer liquid pass during circulation through the cooling system. As the thermal transfer liquid passes through the heat exchanger, an air pump injects air bubbles into the heat exchanger chamber through a porous material. The air bubbles rise up through the thermal transfer liquid and exit at the top of the heat exchanger chamber through a semi-permeable membrane which inhibits loss of the thermal transfer fluid. As the air bubbles pass through the thermal transfer liquid, heat is exchanged directly between the thermal transfer liquid and the contained air. The heat is then removed from the system as the heated air is expelled from the heat exchanger chamber. A valve assembly prevents the thermal transfer liquid from entering the air pump in the event air flow through the heat exchanger chamber is stopped.

The present disclosure further provides a method for removing heat from a thermal transfer liquid circulating within a liquid cooling system adapted for use with a wide range of semiconductor components or adapter circuit boards installed in a personal computer system. Heated thermal transfer liquid is circulated into a heat exchanger assembly, including a heat exchanger chamber. Lower temperature air is injected into the heat exchanger chamber through a porous material by a pump. Rising through the heated thermal transfer liquid within the heat exchanger chamber, the air bubbles absorb thermal energy from the thermal transfer liquid. Heated air is released from the heat exchanger chamber via a semi-permeable membrane at the top of the heat exchanger chamber and discharged into the external environment, removing thermal energy from the system. The cycle is repeated as the thermal transfer liquid is circulated between one or more heat sources and the heat exchanger chamber.

The foregoing features, and advantages set forth in the present disclosure as well as presently preferred embodiments will become more apparent from the reading of the following description in connection with the accompanying drawings.

In the accompanying drawings which form part of the specification:

FIG. 1 is a fluid circuit diagram of the liquid cooling system heat exchanger assembly of the present disclosure; and

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• Utility Patent

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