Non-mechanical magnetic pump for liquid cooling
AssigneeNorthrop Grumman Corporation
InventorsRobin E. Hamilton, Paul G. Kennedy, Christopher R. Vale
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A liquid cooling system contained completely on a circuit board assembly. The liquid cooling system uses microchannels etched within the circuit board, those microchannels being filled with electrically conductive fluid that is pumped by a non-mechanical, magnetic pump. The pump can be separate from the device on the circuit board which is to be cooled or it can be integrated with the device that is to be cooled. In the latter circumstance, the same current which flows through the electronic device is the current which generates the Lorentz force that pumps the electrically conductive fluid through the microchannel.
Claims13
An integrated semiconductor device and non-mechanical magnetic pump cooling system, the semiconductor device including at least a first layer of semiconductor material deposited against a second layer of semiconductor material to form a junction, the system comprising:
- a channel within the first layer of semiconductor material;
- a magnetic field source inducing a magnetic field within, and perpendicular to, a thickness of the first layer;
- and
- an electrically conductive fluid within the channel;
- an electric current, for energizing the semiconductor device, being transmitted through the first layer parallel to the thickness of the layer;
- the fluid in the channel conducting a portion of the current;
- the current being orthogonal to the magnetic field such that an orthogonal Lorentz force is exerted on the fluid as a function of a cross product of the electrical current and the magnetic field;
- the orthogonal Lorentz force pumping the fluid along the channel, the pumped fluid cooling the junction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.