Cooling apparatus for optical devices

Abstract

An internally-cooled optical device 10 includes a manifold 14 having two oppositely disposed coolant input ports 18 and two oppositely disposed coolant output ports 20. The input and output ports are positioned perpendicular to each other. The input coolant flow is divided into macro-channels 28, with each macro-channel having an associated plurality of micro-channels 34 for carrying the coolant along a surface juxtaposed with a surface of the optical device faceplate. The micro-channels terminate in an exit plenum 36 of the macro channel. The exit plenum tapers down to an orifice 38 connected to a return header 42 for delivering the coolant to the outlet ports. The orifices of the macro-channels are sized according to the length of the micro-channels used in the macro-channel, so that each macro-channel has essentially the same pressure drop, and uniform coolant flow is provided in each macro-channel.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.