Back to results
US 6,845,625 B1Granted
Reversible two-phase and refrigeration loop
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorHimanshu Pokharna
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A reversible cooling loop for a notebook computer is described. Specifically, at low power levels, a two-phase fluid cooling loop is implemented to conserve the battery life. At high power levels, a refrigeration loop is implemented.
Claims30
A method, comprising:
- determining a power consumption level of a computer system;
- cooling the computer system with a first cooling cycle if the power consumption level is greater than a predefined threshold;
- and
- cooling the computer system with a second cooling cycle if the power consumption level of the computer system is less than the predefined threshold, wherein the first cooling cycle and the second cooling cycle operate in reverse directions of a cooling loop.
1 more element
A method, comprising:
- cooling a computer system powered by an alternating current (AC) source with a refrigeration operation;
- and
- switching to a two-phase operation to cool the computer system if the AC source is changed to a battery source.
A thermal management system of a notebook computer system, comprising:
- a heat generating component;
- an evaporator coupled to the component to remove heat from the component, wherein the heat is transported via a working fluid;
- and
- a pump coupled to the evaporator to transport the working fluid from the evaporator to a heat exchanger, wherein the pump increases the temperature of the working fluid in a first operating mode, wherein the pump's direction of rotation is reversed in a second operating mode.
1 more element
A thermal management system, comprising:
- means for cooling a notebook computer system through a cooling loop having a first operation and a second operation;
- and
- means for reversing the direction of a working fluid in a cooling loop to reduce power used to operate the thermal management system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.