System and method for maintaining efficiency of a heat sink
AssigneeFractal Heatsink Technologies LLC
InventorAlexander I. Poltorak
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heatsink comprising a heat exchange device having a plurality of heat exchange elements each having a surface boundary with respect to a heat transfer fluid, having successive elements or regions having varying size scales. According to one embodiment, an accumulation of dust or particles on a surface of the heatsink is reduced by a removal mechanism. The mechanism can be thermal pyrolysis, vibration, blowing, etc. In the case of vibration, adverse effects on the system to be cooled may be minimized by an active or passive vibration suppression system.
Claims20
A heatsink system receiving heat from a thermal interface, comprising:
- a plurality of heat exchange elements in a branched configuration, having surfaces configured to shed heat, each branch of the branched configuration having at least one resonance;
- and
- a particle dislodging device configured to mechanically disrupt and decrease an accumulation of particles on the surfaces by generating vibrations,
- wherein the plurality of heat exchange elements are subjected by the particle dislodging device to excitation with the vibrations over a range of frequencies representing different resonances corresponding to different branches of the branched configuration of the heatsink system.
A heatsink method, comprising:
- providing a heat exchange system comprising a thermal interface, a plurality of heat exchange elements in a branched configuration having a plurality of different vibrational resonances in different branches of the branched configuration, the plurality of heat exchange elements having surfaces;
- receiving heat from the thermal interface;
- shedding heat from the surfaces of the plurality of heat exchange elements in the branched configuration;
- and
- mechanically disrupting and decreasing an accumulation of particles on the surfaces of the plurality of heat exchange elements in the branched configuration by generating vibrations with the particle dislodging device over a range of frequencies, to excite the plurality of different resonances in the different branches of the branched configuration.
A heatsink receiving heat from a thermal interface, comprising:
- a plurality of heat exchange elements in a branched configuration, having surfaces configured to shed heat, having a plurality of different resonances distributed over a band, associated with different branches of the branched configuration;
- and
- a particle dislodging device configured to excite vibrations in the plurality of heat exchange elements in the branched configuration over a range of frequencies within the band, to selectively cause resonant movement of different branches over time in accordance to relationship of the excited vibrations and the different resonances, to reduce an accumulation of particles on the surfaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.