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, comprising:
- an interface surface configured to transfer heat with respect to a heat source;
- a heat exchange device configured to receive heat from the interface surface, and emit the received heat into an external surrounding heat transfer medium, wherein the heat exchange surface comprises heat exchange elements having distinct resonant frequencies, wherein at each resonant frequency a subset of the branched heat exchange elements selectively experience resonant vibrations;
- and
- a vibration inducing element configured to:
- concurrently excite resonant vibrations in a first subset of the heat exchange elements while avoiding exciting resonant vibrations in a second subset of the heat exchange elements, and
- concurrently excite resonant vibrations in the second subset of the heat exchange elements while avoiding exciting resonant vibrations in the first subset of the heat exchange elements.
A method of inducing vibrations in a heatsink, comprising:
- providing a heatsink comprising an interface surface configured to receive heat from a heat source, and a heat exchange device configured to receive heat from the interface surface, and emit the received heat into an external surrounding heat transfer medium;
- the heat exchange device comprising a plurality of heat exchange elements comprising a first subset having a first resonant frequency mechanically coupled to a second subset having a second resonant frequency, the first resonant frequency being different from the second resonant frequency;
- concurrently exciting resonant vibrations in the first subset at the first resonant frequency with the vibration inducing element, while avoiding exciting resonant vibrations in the second subset;
- concurrently exciting resonant vibrations in the second subset at the second resonant frequency with the vibration inducing element, while avoiding exciting the resonant vibrations in the first subset.
A heatsink system, comprising:
- a heat exchange device configured to receive heat from an interface surface, and emit the received heat into an external surrounding gaseous heat transfer medium having dust, wherein the heat exchange surface comprises a branched array of heat exchange elements having distinct resonant frequencies, wherein at each resonant frequency a subset of the branched heat exchange elements experience resonant vibrations;
- and
- a vibration inducing element configured to:
- concurrently excite resonant vibrations in a first subset of the heat exchange elements at a first resonant frequency, while avoiding exciting resonant vibrations in a second subset of the heat exchange elements;
- concurrently exciting resonant vibrations in the second subset of the heat exchange elements at the second resonant frequency, while avoiding exciting the resonant vibrations in the first subset of the heat exchange elements,
- wherein the concurrently excited resonant vibrations are sufficient to dislodge the dust from the heat exchange surface with attenuated vibration at the interface surface with respect to the excited resonant vibrations.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.