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Methods and apparatus for multiple temperature levels

Methods and apparatus for multiple temperature levels description/claims

Electrical component manufacturers strive to shrink their designs and pack more technology into a compact footprint. Advances in materials and fabrication processes have lead to much progress in this area. Compact designs, however, have led to many thermal energy producing elements packed into a tight space. Heat can be an enemy of electrical components and can decrease efficiency and reliability.

A heat sink absorbs and dissipates heat using thermal contact. Heat sinks are widely used in electronics, and have become almost essential to modern central processing units. In common use, a heat sink is a metal object brought into contact with an electronic component's hot surface. Microprocessors and power handling semiconductors are examples of electronics that use a heat sink to reduce their temperature through increased thermal mass and heat dissipation.

Cold plates may also be used as heat sinks. In a world of compact designs with increasing power densities, cold plates are satisfying demanding contact cooling requirements in applications as diverse as high-powered electronics, lasers, power generation, medical equipment, and military and aerospace. For high watt densities, when air-cooled heat sinks are inadequate, liquid-cooled cold plates are the ideal high-performance heat transfer solution. Generally, a liquid-cooled cold plate is a channel imbedded in a low thermal resistive solid surface that uses a fluid to dissipate heat. While effective, cold plates provide a single level of cooling. Different components requiring different temperatures require separate heat sinks and/or cold plates.

Methods and apparatus for thermal management according to various aspects of the present invention comprise a heat exchanger and one or more controllable thermal transfer elements. In one embodiment, the thermal transfer elements comprise thermoelectric coolers. The thermal transfer elements are thermally coupled to the heat exchanger. Components on a surface near the thermal transfer elements may be selectively cooled by controlling the thermal transfer elements.

Representative elements, operational features, applications and/or advantages of the present invention reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully depicted, described or otherwise identified—reference being made to the accompanying drawings, images, figures, etc. forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout. Other elements, operational features, applications and/or advantages will become apparent in view of certain exemplary embodiments recited in the disclosure herein.

FIG. 1 is a cross section of a cooling system according to various aspects of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a cross section of a cooling system having two sets of thermal transfer elements.

Elements in the figures, drawings, images, etc. are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention.

Furthermore, the terms ‘first’, ‘second’, and the like herein, if any, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequential or chronological order. Moreover, the terms ‘front’, ‘back’, ‘top’, ‘bottom’, ‘over’, ‘under’, and the like in the disclosure and/or in the claims, if any, are generally employed for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for comprehensively describing exclusive relative position. Any of the preceding terms so used may be interchanged under appropriate circumstances such that various embodiments of the invention described herein, for example, are capable of operation in other configurations and/or orientations than those explicitly illustrated or otherwise described.

The descriptions are of exemplary embodiments of the invention and the inventors' conception of the best mode and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description is intended to provide convenient illustrations for implementing various embodiments of the invention. Changes may be made in the function and/or arrangement of any of the elements described in the disclosed exemplary embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Various representative implementations of the present invention may be applied to any system for thermal energy transfer. The present invention may be described in terms of conventional plates, heat transfer media, and fluids. Plates in accordance with the present invention may comprise any number of conventional materials including, but not limited to, ceramics, metals, plastics, fiberglass, glass, various other inorganic and organic materials and/or the like. Furthermore, such plates may comprise various forms, layers, walls, sizes, thicknesses, textures and dimensions and/or the like.

Heat transfer media in accordance with various aspects of the present invention may comprise any suitable materials and/or systems for heat transfer. In one embodiment, heat transfer media may comprise finstock. In another embodiment, heat transfer media may comprise various thermocouples, sensors and/or the like. In yet another embodiment, heat transfer media may comprise heat sinks, cold plates and/or the like.

Referring to FIG. 1, a cooling system 100 according to various aspects of the present invention exhibiting multiple temperature levels at different locations comprises a heat exchanger and one or more thermal transfer elements. In the present embodiment, the heat exchanger is defined by first and second thermal transfer layers 110, 120 defining a cooling fluid channel 140, through which a heat transfer medium 145 may flow. One or more thermal transfer elements 160 may be disposed between and thermally coupled to the second and third thermal transfer layers 120, 130. Elements to be cooled 170, 171, 172, 173 may be thermally coupled to the first and third thermal transfer layers 110, 130. By controlling the flow of heat transfer medium 145 through the cooling fluid channel 140 and/or the thermal transfer elements 160, the temperatures of the elements to be cooled 170, 171, 172, 173 may be individually controlled.

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