Method & arrangement for cooling a substrate, particularly a semiconductor

A cooling apparatus adapted for cooling a heat-generating substrate by cold vapor refrigeration, comprising a refrigeration loop including:

• a refrigerant compressor (32),
• a condenser (44) for receiving refrigerant from said compressor and for outputting heat to ambient air, thereby cooling said refrigerant,
• a fan (20) arranged to pass said ambient air past said condenser (44),
• a throttle valve (62) for receiving cooled refrigerant from said condenser (44), and adapted to permit isenthalpic expansion of the refrigerant,
• an evaporator (60;
• 100), adapted to receive refrigerant from said throttle valve (62), and thermally coupled to the heat-generating substrate (12),
• a common drive motor (42) adapted to drive both said compressor (32) and said fan (20), and
• a controller (54) adapted to receive a signal corresponding to refrigerant temperature, and to control said temperature by controlling a rotation speed of said fan (20).

A method of cooling a surface of a heat-generating electronic device, using a refrigeration loop, comprising the steps of:

• compressing a refrigerant in a compressor (32);
• feeding said refrigerant from said compressor (32) through a condenser (44) being cooling by a fan (20);
• subjecting said refrigerant from said condenser (44) to an expansion step to reduce its pressure and its temperature, until it is present as a boiling liquid and a wet vapor;
• applying said boiling liquid and wet vapor to a heat-transfer surface (114) in an evaporator (100) thermally coupled to said heat-generating electronic device;
• and
• returning refrigerant from said evaporator to said compressor (32);
• wherein said compressor (32) and said fan (20) rotate according to drive energy from a common motor (42), and wherein a temperature of said refrigerant is monitored and controlled (54) by controlling rotation speed of said common motor (42).