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US 6,349,554 B2Granted
Spray cooling system
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsChandrakant D. Patel, Cullen E. Bash
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A spray cooling system for semiconductor devices. An ink-jet type spray device sprays droplets of a cooling fluid onto the semiconductor devices. The devices vaporize the liquid, which gets passed through a roll bond panel, or other heat exchanger, and is pumped into a spring loaded reservoir that feeds the spray device.
Claims42
A cooling assembly for cooling a heat source with a cooling fluid, comprising:
- an incremental sprayer configured to eject an incremental amount of the cooling fluid on the heat source in response to a control signal;
- and
- a controller configured to send the control signal to the incremental sprayer;
- wherein the incremental sprayer includes:
- a body defining a chamber configured to hold a volume of the cooling fluid, and defining an orifice in communication with the chamber;
- and
- a heating element in thermal communication with the chamber, the heating element being configured to vaporize a portion of the cooling fluid held within the chamber;
- and
- wherein the orifice is configured to direct cooling fluid from the chamber to the heat source upon the heating element vaporizing a portion of the cooling fluid held within the chamber.
6 more elements
A method of cooling a heat source, comprising:
- ejecting an incremental amount of a cooling fluid onto the heat source using an incremental sprayer;
- and
- repeating the step of ejecting;
- wherein the step of ejecting includes the steps of
- providing cooling fluid to a chamber defined in the incremental sprayer, and
- energizing a heating element in thermal communication with the chamber to vaporize a portion of the cooling fluid within the chamber;
- and
- wherein the incremental sprayer defines an orifice in communication with the chamber, the orifice being configured to direct cooling fluid from the chamber to the heat source upon the heating element's vaporizing of a portion of the cooling fluid in the chamber.
5 more elements
A cooling assembly for cooling a heat source with a cooling fluid, comprising:
- an incremental sprayer configured to eject an incremental amount of the cooling fluid on the heat source in response to a control signal, wherein the incremental sprayer is configured to eject the cooling fluid by contracting the walls of a chamber containing cooling fluid to reduce the chamber's volume and thereby eject the incremental amount of cooling fluid;
- and
- a controller configured to send the control signal to the incremental sprayer.
A method of cooling a heat source, comprising:
- ejecting an incremental amount of a cooling fluid onto the heat source using an incremental sprayer;
- and
- repeating the step of ejecting;
- wherein the step of ejecting includes the steps of
- providing cooling fluid to a chamber defined in the incremental sprayer, and
- contracting the walls of a chamber containing cooling fluid to reduce the chamber's volume;
- and
- wherein the incremental sprayer defines an orifice in communication with the chamber, the orifice being configured to direct cooling fluid from the chamber to the heat source upon the contracting of the walls of the chamber.
5 more elements
A cooling assembly for cooling a heat source with a cooling fluid, comprising:
- a sprayer configured to spray a cooling fluid onto the heat source at a mean flow rate;
- a pooling sensor configured to sense if sprayed cooling fluid is pooling;
- and
- a controller configured to adjust the sprayer's mean flow rate for the sprayed cooling fluid based on the pooling sensor's reading on whether the sprayed cooling fluid is pooling.
1 more element
A method of cooling a heat source, comprising:
- spraying a cooling fluid onto the heat source at a mean flow rate;
- sensing if the sprayed cooling fluid is pooling;
- and
- adjusting the mean flow rate of the sprayed cooling fluid based on whether the sprayed cooling fluid is pooling.
1 more element
A cooling assembly for cooling a heat source with a cooling fluid, comprising:
- an incremental sprayer configured to eject an incremental amount of the cooling fluid on the heat source in response to a control signal;
- a controller configured to send the control signal to the incremental sprayer;
- a heat exchanger configured to cool and condense cooling fluid that was vaporized by the heat source after being ejected by the incremental sprayer;
- wherein the incremental sprayer is configured to received cooling fluid condensed by the heat exchanger.
1 more element
A cooling assembly for cooling a heat source with a cooling fluid, comprising:
- an incremental sprayer configured to eject an incremental amount of the cooling fluid on the heat source in response to a control signal;
- a controller configured to send the control signal to the incremental sprayer;
- and
- a roll bond panel configured to cool and condense cooling fluid that was vaporized by the heat source after being ejected by the incremental sprayer.
1 more element
A cooling assembly for cooling a heat source with a cooling fluid, comprising:
- an incremental sprayer configured to eject a single droplet of the cooling fluid on the heat source in response to a control signal;
- and
- a controller configured to send the control signal to the incremental sprayer.
A method of cooling a heat source, comprising:
- spraying a cooling fluid onto the heat source;
- sensing whether pooling of the sprayed cooling fluid is occurring;
- and
- varying the flow rate of the spraying based upon the sensed indication of whether pooling is occurring.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.