MEMS based device for phase-change autonomous transport of heat (PATH)
AssigneeRockwell Collins, Inc.
InventorQizhou Matthew Yao
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention includes a MEMS-based cooling system that can be passive or active in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed. The MEMS-based cooling system has an expandable MEMS device that is a MEMS device that has one or more expandable chambers to help transfer heat autonomously from a heat source using a working fluid and one or more MEMS directional devices that can control the flow of the working fluid through one or more cooling channels that enable heat transfer from one or more heat sources to one or more heat sinks via the working fluid.
Claims18
A MEMS based two-phase loop thermal system which transfers heat autonomously from one or more heat sources to a heat sink, comprising:
- a) one or more expandable MEMS devices containing a working fluid;
- b) one or more MEMS directional devices to control and regulate the flow of the working fluid;
- c) one or more cooling channels that enable heat transfer from the one or more heat sources to the heat sink via the working fluid;
- and
- d) a MEMS condenser adjacent to the heat sink to convert the working fluid from a vapor phase to a liquid phase,
- wherein the one or more expandable MEMS devices further contain expansion chambers, different from the one or more cooling channels, that are constructed in series or in parallel, making an integrated MEMS controllable expansion chamber.
A method comprising:
- providing working fluid to an expandable MEMS device to transfer heat from a heat source to a heat sink;
- allowing the expandable MEMS device to move the working fluid through one or more directional devices to control one or more cooling channels that run between the heat source and the heat sink;
- converting the working fluid from a vapor phase to a liquid phase in a MEMs condenser adjacent to the heat sink;
- controlling the working fluid access to expansion chambers in the expandable MEMS device, where the expansion chambers, different from the one or more cooling channels, are alternately in series or in parallel, making a MEMS controllable expansion chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.