Portable computing device with thermal management

#1. Field of the Invention

#This invention relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly to heat spreaders for providing thermal management of electronic devices, including semiconductor chips.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#The foregoing and other advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of an exemplary embodiment of a computing device;

#FIG. 2 is a sectional view of FIG. 1 taken at section 2-2;

#Various embodiments of a computing device are disclosed. In one arrangement, a computing device, such as a tablet computer, includes a housing with an internal space holding a circuit board and semiconductor chip. The housing has an external wall. A heat spreader is in thermal contact with the semiconductor chip, but separated from the wall by a gap. The gap eliminates a direct thermal pathway to a body part of a user that would otherwise exist. Additional details will now be described.

#In the drawings described below, reference numerals are generally repeated where identical elements appear in more than one figure. Turning now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1, therein is shown a pictorial view of an exemplary embodiment of a computing device 10. The computing device 10 may be any of a number of different types of computing devices, such as hand held computers, smart phones, or virtually any other portable computing device. In this illustrative embodiment, the computing device 10 may include a housing 15 and a screen or display 20 connected to the housing 15. Here the housing 15 and the screen 20 have a generally rectangular shape with rounded corners. However, the skilled artisan will appreciate that the footprints of the housing 15 and the display 20 may take on virtually limitless numbers of configurations. The housing 15 may be constructed of well-known plastics, metals, such as aluminum, stainless steel or the like, or combinations of such materials. The display 20 may be a liquid crystal display, a LED readout or virtually any other type of display device.

#Additional details of the computing device 10 may be understood by referring now also to FIG. 2, which is a sectional view of FIG. 1 taken at section 2-2. In this illustrative embodiment, the housing 15 includes an internal space 23 for holding various components. The housing 15 may include a front opening 24 to accommodate the display 20 (represented schematically for simplicity of illustration) and an exterior wall 25 designed to contact a body part (a hand, arm or lap) of a user. The exterior wall 25 may include a removable back panel 27 that provides access to the internal space 23 and the components positioned therein. The back panel 27 may be secured to the housing 15 by way of one or more screws 30 or other types of fasteners. Optionally, the exterior wall 25 may be fixed and access to the internal space 23 provided via the opening 24. To provide a seating area for the display 20, the housing 15 may include a peripheral shelf 35 that circumscribes the opening 24. A circuit board 40 is positioned in the internal space 23 and may be secured to an underside of the peripheral shelf 35 by way of one or more screws 45 or other fasteners. The circuit board 40 may be a system board, a daughter board or other type of printed circuit board and composed of a variety of materials, such as well-known ceramics, organic materials such as one or more epoxy layers or other materials. The circuit board 40 includes plural surface and/or internal conductor traces (not visible) interconnected by vias as desired. Depending on the complexity of the computing device 10, the circuit board 40 may be populated by numerous components. A few exemplary components that are surface-mounted to the side 50 of the circuit board 40, such as the resistors 55 and 60 and a capacitor 65, are depicted. The skilled artisan will appreciate that many different types of components may be mounted to the circuit board 40.