US20080035310A1

US20080035310A1 - Isothermal Plate Module

Info

Publication number: US20080035310A1
Application number: US11/463,449
Authority: US
Inventors: Hul-Chun Hsu
Original assignee: Jaffe Ltd
Current assignee: Jaffe Ltd
Priority date: 2006-08-09
Filing date: 2006-08-09
Publication date: 2008-02-14

Abstract

An isothermal plate module includes an isothermal plate body and a plurality of heat pipes. One surface of the isothermal plate body has first recesses extending along a first direction and second recesses extending along a second direction. The first recesses extending along the first direction and the second recesses extending along the second direction are staggered to one another. A level difference is formed between each first and second recess. The heat pipes can be disposed in the first recesses and the second recesses, respectively. The isothermal plate body adheres to the heat source. With the plurality of staggered heat pipes and the working fluid and capillary structure within the heat pipes, an isothermal plate module can be formed.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of an isothermal plate module, and in particular to a structure planarly provided on a heat source element. Further, a plurality of heat pipes having different orientations and levels are disposed in the isothermal plate, thereby to efficiently increase the heat-dissipating coefficient and the heat-dissipating efficiency.
2. Description of Prior Art
Taiwan Patent Publication No. 510961 entitled “Method for manufacturing heat-dissipating plate and heat pipe” discloses a procedure comprising the steps of: processing a heat-dissipating plate, providing a plurality of heat-conducting passages with their distal ends un-penetrated, sealing the open end of each heat-conducting passage and keeping at least one opening, filling the open end with working fluid and performing a vacuum treatment to the kept open end, and sealing the kept open end. The object of said patent document is to utilize the heat-dissipating plate made of materials having better heat conductivity (such as copper and aluminum), and cooperate with the processing method to form heat-conducting passages. A capillary structure and the working fluid are filled into the heat-conducting passages. In this way, the heat-dissipating plate is formed into a heat pipe, and in operation, the heat can be rapidly conducted to the outside by the principle of heat pipe.
When the working fluid is heated to vaporize, the thus-generated vapor moves toward the lower-pressure condensed end to form a vapor flow. After cooling down at the condensed end, the vapor releases the latent heat, which is called the principle of heat pipe. With the circulation of this principle, the heat of the heat source can be dissipated. No matter whether the heat-dissipating plate and heat pipe finally formed in Taiwan Patent Publication No. 510961 has efficiently achieved heat dissipation, the processing procedure indeed has some difficulty in practice. First, the heat-dissipating plate is subjected to the processing procedure for forming the heat-conducting passages. Precision is required when forming the heat-conducting passages. When the angle of initial processing is slightly deviated, the whole passage will oblique, resulting in the bad products (such as the collapse of the surface of the heat dissipating plate). Further, since there is a lot of heat-conducting passages, the possibility of error may be relatively increased, resulting in the poor practicability of mass production. Moreover, penetrating through the heat-conducting passages by means of the processing procedure can be only carried out on a heat-conducting plate having small area. As to the area of the heat-dissipating plate necessary for a back light module of a 14″ liquid crystal screen, the above kind of processing procedure is very unsuitable.
With reference to FIG. 1, it shows another prior art. The isothermal plate body includes an upper end face 22 and a lower end face 24. A plurality of recesses 220, 240 having different orientations and depths are provided on the two end faces 22, 24. A heat pipe 26 is disposed in each recess 220, 240. With the contact of one end face (such as lower end face 24) with a heat source, the heat-conducting effect can be achieved. After researching, the inventor found that a gap exists between the end face contacting with the heat source and the heat pipe having curved surface. If the gap is located on the condensed end that releases the latent heat after cooling, it is acceptable. However, the gap is located on the end contacting with the heat source, so that the heat pipe cannot directly contact with the heat source and thus the heat-conducting effect is deteriorated.
In view of the above, the inventor proposes the present invention to overcome the above problems based on his expert experiences and deliberate researches.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is to provide an isothermal plate module comprising a plurality of recesses with different orientations and levels. A plurality of heat pipes is provided in the recesses to increase the heat-dissipating coefficient and improve the heat-dissipating efficiency. As a result, a device that is light in weight, simple in structure, large in the heat-conducting distance and is not restricted by the gravity and needs no additional external power can be obtained.
Another, the present invention is in that only one end face of the isothermal plate body is provided with recesses, whereas the other end face is a flat surface. The flat surface is used to tightly abut against a heat source without any gap therebetween to affect the heat-absorbing effect of the isothermal plate.
Still another, the present invention is to provide an isothermal plate having a large area. Since the density of heat generation of many electronic apparatuses is very high, for example, a LED back light module displayer employs LEDs to be the light source of the displayer, and thus a heat-dissipating member having a large area is necessary. In the manufacture of the present invention, only one end face is provided with recesses and the heat pipes are disposed in the recesses to form the isothermal plate module. Therefore, the manufacture is easy and can be applied to the mass production of electronic products having large area. Further, the present invention provides a perfect effect of heat conduction.
The isothermal plate module of the present invention includes an isothermal plate body and a plurality of heat pipes. One end face of the isothermal plate body has first recesses extending along a first direction and second recesses extending along a second direction. The first recesses extending along the first direction and the second recesses extending along the second direction are overlapped with each other. A level difference is formed between the first and second recesses. The heat pipes can be disposed in the first recesses and the second recesses, respectively. The other surface of the isothermal plate body is a flat surface. The flat surface is used to adhere to the heat source for absorbing the heat. Then, the heat is transmitted to the plurality of overlapped heat pipes. With the working fluid and capillary structure within the heat pipes, an isothermal plate module can be formed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the structure of a conventional isothermal plate;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an assembled view of the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective side view of the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing the operating state of the second embodiment of the present invention adhering to a heat source;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a third embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a perspective side view of the third embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order to make the Examiner better understand the characteristics and the technical contents of the present invention, a detailed description relating to this will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it should be understood that the drawings are illustrative but not used to limit the scope of the present invention.
With reference to FIG. 2, it is an exploded perspective view showing the isothermal plate module of a first embodiment of the present invention. The isothermal plate module 1 is constituted of an isothermal plate body 10 and a plurality of heat pipes 12. The isothermal plate body 10 has first recesses 102 extending along a first direction and second recesses 104 extending along a second direction. In this figure, the first or second recesses 102, 104 are parallel to one another to form a space between any parallel first or second recess. The first recesses 102 and the second recesses 104 are staggered and overlapped with one another, so that the end face 14 of the isothermal plate body 10 is formed into a mesh-like arrangement. Each first recess 102 is formed into a deeper recess, so that the heat pipes 12 a having the same orientation can be completely disposed in the isothermal plate body 10. Each second recess 104 has a level difference with respect to the first recess 102, so that the heat pipes 12 b disposed in the second recesses 104 will be located above heat pipes 12 a disposed in the first recesses 102. Therefore, the staggered heat pipes 12 a, 12 b will not interference with one another. In addition, each heat pipe 12 a, 12 b can abut against one another, thereby to increase the heat-conducting efficiency. Since the working fluid and capillary structure provided within the heat pipes 12 a, 12 b are conventional, the description thereof is omitted.
With reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, they are an assembled view and a perspective side view of the present invention, respectively. The heat pipes 12 a are disposed in the first recesses 102. The heat pipes 12 b are staggered with respect to the heat pipes 12 a and is disposed in the second recesses 104. The peripheries of the heat pipes 12 a within the first recesses 102 and those of the heat pipes 12 b within the second recesses 104 partially adhere to the isothermal plate body 10. A portion of the peripheries is exposed to the outside. The working fluid within the heat pipes 12 a, 12 b is heated by the portion thereof contacting with the isothermal plate body 10 and thus generates vapor. The thus-generated vapor moves toward the lower-pressure exposed portion (condensed end) to form a vapor flow. The vapor is cooled down at the exposed portion (condensed end) to release the latent heat thereof.
Since the other end face opposite to the recessing surface of the isothermal plate is a flat surface 16. The flat surface is used to tightly adhere to the heat source, and there is no gap therebetween to affect the heat-absorbing effect of the isothermal plate. Therefore, the isothermal plate module of the present invention has an absolute effect on the heat source absorbed thereto. Further, in the present invention, since the heat pipes are staggered on the isothermal plate, the heat dissipation can be carried out to the entire heat source, further improving the heat-dissipating efficiency.
With reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the present embodiment, it aims to produce a heat source device having a large area. As shown in the previous embodiment, the recesses 102, 104 of the present invention can be achieved by processing on the end face 14 of the isothermal plate body 10. Therefore, no matter the area of the isothermal plate is large or not, the same processing procedure can be applied. Therefore, in the present embodiment, it is not difficult to form the first recesses 102′ along the first direction and second recesses 104′ along the second direction on the isothermal plate body 10′ having a large area. Further, the heat pipes 12 a′, 12 b′ can be made to have a length identical to the length or width of the isothermal plate.
The present invention can be applied to the electronic apparatuses having a high density of heat generation. FIG. 6 shows the isothermal plate module 1′ of the second embodiment, in which a simulation of heat dissipation is made with respect to a heat source Q. The isothermal plate module 1′ utilizes a flat surface 16′ to tightly adhere to the heat source Q, so that the heat generated by the heat source Q can be conducted to each heat pipe 12 a′, 12 b′ from the flat surface 16′ of the isothermal plate module 1′ via the isothermal plate body 10′. Similarly, the working fluid within the heat pipes 12 a′, 12 b′ is heated by its portion contacting with the isothermal plate and thus generates vapor. The thus-generated vapor moves toward the low-pressure exposed portion (condensed end) to form a vapor flow. The vapor is cooled down at the exposed portion (condensed end) to release the latent heat thereof. With the latent heat between the liquid and vapor phases of the working fluid, the considerable amount of heat to be removed far exceeds the heat removed by means of single-phase heat dissipation (such as fan, heat dissipating fins).
With reference to FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, a third embodiment of the present invention is shown. The reference numerals used in this embodiment are the same as those used in the first embodiment. In the present embodiment, to avoid the first recesses 102 and the second recesses 104, the end face of the isothermal plate body 10 is provided with third recesses 106 along a third direction. Each third recess 106 can be a through hole or a blind hole. The heat pipe 12 c can be inserted with an angle of the third direction. Since each third recess 106 of the present embodiment is not long in distance, it is easy to accomplish the drilling operation. To provide the third recesses 106 along the third direction is to increase the heat-conducting and heat-dissipating efficiency. In the drawing, a portion of the heat pipes 12 c within the third recesses 106 is tangential to the heat pipes 12 a or 12 b within the first recesses 102 and the second recesses 104 or tangential to both of them. In this way, these heat pipes contact with one another. In comparison with this, a portion of the third recesses 106 is independent. It can be anticipated that the structure of this embodiment can be used to obtain a better heat-conducting efficiency. However, the third recesses 106 are not limited to the above embodiment. Any recess 106 provided in the third direction at any positions on the end face 14 of the isothermal plate body 10 should be embraced in the above description.
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional side view of the third embodiment shown in FIG. 7. It is well known that the heat pipe 12 c includes a sealing end 122 (exemplified by the designated heat pipe 12 c). The wall face formed by the sealing end 122 shrinks to form a thickness and thus is not a flat end. Therefore, if each third recess 106 provided in the third direction is a blind hole, the sealing end 122 of the heat pipe 12 c can be ground in advance, so that the wall face can be formed into a substantially flat surface. In this way, a larger contacting area can be formed between the sealing end 122 of the heat pipe 12 c and the bottom of the recess 106. If each third recess 106 is a through hole, in addition to the above grinding process, all the heat pipes 12 c can be firstly disposed on the third recess 106. Then, all the sealing ends 122 exposed from the through hole are ground in one time. The thus-ground heat pipes 12 c and the end surface are coated with a heat-conducting glue, thereby to achieve the same effect.
According to the above, the present invention indeed achieves the desired effects and solves the drawbacks of prior art by using the above-mentioned structure. Further, the present invention involves the novelty and inventive steps, and thus conforms to the requirements for a utility model patent.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the foregoing preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details thereof. Various equivalent variations and modifications can still be occurred to those skilled in this art in view of the teachings of the present invention. Thus, all such variations and equivalent modifications are also embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. An isothermal plate module, comprising:

an isothermal plate body with one surface being a flat surface, the other surface thereof having first recesses extending along a first direction and second recesses extending along a second direction, the first recesses and the second recesses staggered and a level difference formed therebetween; and

a plurality of heat pipes staggered with each other to be disposed in the first recesses and the second recesses, respectively.

2. The isothermal plate module according to claim 1, wherein each first recess is formed into a deeper recess, so that the heat pipes are completely disposed in the isothermal plate body, and each second recess has a higher level with respect to the first recesses so that the heat pipes within the second recesses are located above the heat pipes within the first recesses.

3. The isothermal plate module according to claim 1, wherein a partial wall of the heat pipe within the first recess or the second recess adheres to the isothermal plate body.

4. The isothermal plate module according to claim 1, further comprising third recesses provided along a third direction, thereby to receive the heat pipes in a third direction with an angle respected to the first and the second directions.

5. The isothermal plate module according to claim 4, wherein each third recess is a blind hole.

6. The isothermal plate module according to claim 4, wherein each third recess is a through hole.

7. The isothermal plate module according to claim 4, wherein the heat pipes within the third recesses contact with the heat pipes within the first and the second recesses.