Cold plate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11240932-B1
Application number	US-201816047429-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jul 27, 2018
Priority date	Jul 27, 2018
Publication date	Feb 1, 2022
Grant date	Feb 1, 2022

Abstract

This technology relates to a cooling system for reducing the amount of heat within a sensor housing. The system comprising a cold plate containing an interior liquid cooling channel containing a cooling fluid, a heat exchanger attached to the cold plate, and at least one fan configured to generate an air flow loop. The heat exchanger is configured to draw heat from the air flow loop and pass the drawn heat to the cold plate, which in turn, passes the drawn heat to the cooling liquid.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A cooling system comprising:
a sensor housing;
a plurality of sensor components;
a cold plate containing an interior liquid cooling channel containing a cooling fluid, wherein at least one of the plurality of sensor components is mounted on the cold plate, at least one of the plurality of sensor components is positioned in proximity to the cold plate, and the cold plate is configured to draw heat from the plurality of sensor components;
a heat exchanger attached to the cold plate; and
a plurality of fans configured to generate two air flow loops to reduce the heat within the sensor housing generated by the plurality of sensor components,
wherein the cold plate includes a plurality of pass-throughs for allowing the two air flow loops to pass through the cold plate,
wherein the heat exchanger is configured to draw heat from the two air flow loops and pass the drawn heat to the cold plate, which in turn, passes the drawn heat to the cooling fluid,
wherein an interior of the sensor housing includes an upper portion, a lower portion, and a middle portion positioned between the upper portion and the lower portion, and a separating structure positioned between the upper portion and the middle portion, wherein at least one of the plurality of sensor components is mounted on the separating structure;
wherein a first of the two air flow loops pulls air from the lower portion into the middle portion, and
wherein a second of the two air flow loops pulls air from at least one of the middle portion or the upper portion into the lower portion.

2. The cooling system of claim 1 , wherein the cooling fluid is one or more of water, propylene glycol, ethylene glycol, or diethylene glycol.

3. The cooling system of claim 2 , wherein the cooling fluid contains at least one additive selected from a group of anti-corrosion or antimicrobial compounds.

4. The cooling system of claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger is a plate heat exchanger or a fin stack.

5. The cooling system of claim 1 , wherein:
the lower portion is positioned between the sensor housing and the cold plate; and
the middle portion is positioned between the separating structure and the cold plate.

6. The cooling system of claim 1 , wherein the first air flow loop is perpendicular to the second air flow loop.

7. The cooling system of claim 1 , wherein the first of the two air flow loops is generated by a first fan of the plurality of fans and a second fan of the plurality of fans.

8. The cooling system of claim 7 , wherein the first fan and the second fan are configured to blow in opposite directions.

9. The cooling system of claim 8 , wherein the second of the two airflow loops is generated by a third fan of the plurality of fans and a fourth fan of the plurality of fans.

10. The cooling system of claim 9 , wherein the third fan and the fourth fan are configured to blow in opposite directions.

11. The cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising a pump, wherein the pump circulates the cooling fluid within a cooling loop.

12. The cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising a second heat exchanger, wherein the cooling fluid passes through the second heat exchanger and the second heat exchanger cools the cooling fluid to a predefined temperature.

13. The cooling system of claim 12 , wherein the second heat exchanger is positioned outside of the sensor housing.

14. The cooling system of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of fans is mounted to a mount in proximity to a respective one of the plurality of pass-throughs.

15. The cooling system of claim 14 , wherein two of the plurality of fans are configured to pull air through their respective pass-throughs and two of the plurality of fans are configured to push air through their respective pass-throughs.

16. A cooling system comprising:
a sensor housing; wherein an interior of the sensor housing includes an upper portion, a lower portion, a middle portion positioned between the upper portion and the lower portion, and a separating structure positioned between the upper portion and the middle portion;
a plurality of sensor components; wherein at least one of the plurality of sensor components is mounted on the separating structure;
a cold plate containing an interior liquid cooling channel containing a cooling fluid, wherein at least one of the sensor components is mounted on the cold plate, and-at least one of the sensor components is positioned in proximity to the cold plate, and the cold plate is configured to draw heat from the plurality of sensor components;
a heat exchanger attached to the cold plate; and
a plurality of fans configured to generate two air flow loops to reduce the heat within the sensor housing generated by the plurality of sensor components,
wherein the heat exchanger is configured to draw heat from the two air flow loops and pass the drawn heat to the cold plate, which in turn, passes the drawn heat to the cooling fluid, and
wherein the cold plate includes a plurality of pass-throughs for allowing the two air flow loops to pass through the cold plate.

17. The cooling system of claim 16 , wherein two of the plurality of fans are configured to pull air through their respective pass-throughs and two of the plurality of fans are configured to push air through their respective pass-throughs.

18. The cooling system of claim 16 , wherein each of the plurality of fans is mounted to a mount in proximity to a respective one or the plurality of pass-throughs.

19. The cooling system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sensor components include at least one LIDAR device and a processor that are mounted or otherwise positioned within the upper portion of the sensor housing.

20. The cooling system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the plurality of sensor components mounted on the cold plate is a processor, and the at least one of the plurality of sensor components positioned in proximity to the cold plate is a camera imaging sensor.

Assignees

• Waymo Llc

Inventors

• Andrade Justin Matthew

Classifications

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S7/4813

  Housing arrangements · CPC title

• G01S17/86

  Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders · CPC title

• H05K7/20218

  using a liquid coolant without phase change in electronic enclosures (in cabinets of standardized dimensions H05K7/20536; in server cabinets H05K7/20709; in vehicle electronic casings H05K7/20845; in power control electronics H05K7/2089; in displays H05K7/20954) · CPC title

• H05K7/20872 Primary

  Liquid coolant without phase change · CPC title