Electronic component cooling device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11778779-B2
Application number	US-201916689879-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2019
Priority date	Nov 22, 2018
Publication date	Oct 3, 2023
Grant date	Oct 3, 2023

Abstract

In an electronic component cooling device, a cooler cools an electronic component, a coolant temperature acquisition unit acquires a temperature of a coolant, a coolant flow rate acquisition unit acquires the flow rate of the coolant, a heat loss estimation unit estimates a heat loss from the electronic component, and a loss threshold calculation unit calculates an upper limit threshold of the heat loss from the electronic component based on the coolant temperature and the coolant flow rate. A coolant flow rate control unit controls the flow rate of the coolant and is configured to, in response to an estimated heat loss which is the heat loss from the electronic component that has been estimated by the heat loss estimation unit exceeding the upper limit threshold, increase the flow rate of the coolant circulating through the cooler.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic component cooling device comprising:
a cooler which cools an electronic component by circulating a coolant through the cooler;
a temperature sensor which acquires a temperature of the coolant that is introduced into the cooler;
a flowmeter which acquires a flow rate of the coolant that circulates through the cooler;
a non-transitory memory storing one or more computer programs; and
a processor executing the one or more programs to:
estimate a heat loss from the electronic component;
calculate an upper limit threshold of the heat loss from the electronic component based on a coolant temperature acquired by the temperature sensor and a coolant flow rate acquired by the flowmeter, the upper limit threshold of the heat loss being an upper limit value of a reasonable heat loss with which dry-out of the coolant can be avoided; and
in response to an estimated heat loss exceeding the upper limit threshold, control the flow rate of the coolant that circulates through the cooler so as to increase the flow rate of the coolant,

wherein the coolant does not pass through an evaporator as the coolant circulates.

2. The electronic component cooling device according to claim 1 , wherein
the processor calculates a lower limit threshold of the heat loss from the electronic component based on the coolant temperature acquired by the temperature sensor and the coolant flow rate acquired by the flowmeter, the lower limit threshold being less than the upper limit threshold, and the lower limit threshold of the heat loss being a lower limit value of a reasonable heat loss with which excess of cooling ability is avoided, and
in response to the estimated heat loss falling below the lower limit threshold, the processor decreases the flow rate of the coolant that circulates through the cooler.

3. An electronic component cooling device comprising:
a cooler which cools an electronic component by circulating a coolant through the cooler;
a temperature sensor which acquires a temperature of the coolant that is introduced into the cooler;
a flowmeter which acquires a flow rate of the coolant that circulates through the cooler;
a pressure sensor which acquires a flow path internal pressure in the cooler;
a non-transitory memory storing one or more computer programs; and
a processor executing the one or more programs to:
calculate an internal pressure amplitude that is an amplitude of oscillation of the flow path internal pressure acquired by the pressure sensor;
calculate an upper limit threshold of the internal pressure amplitude based on a coolant temperature acquired by the temperature sensor and a coolant flow rate acquired by the flowmeter, the upper limit threshold being set as an upper limit value of the internal pressure amplitude of the coolant that is not considered to induce dry-out after a first predetermined time even when a current coolant flow rate is maintained;
calculate a lower limit threshold of the internal pressure amplitude based on the coolant temperature acquired by the temperature sensor and the coolant flow rate acquired by the flowmeter, the lower limit threshold (i) being less than the upper limit threshold and (ii) being set as an upper limit value of the internal pressure amplitude of the coolant that is not considered to induce dry-out after a second predetermined time even when the current coolant flow rate is maintained, the second predetermined time being longer than the first predetermined time;
in response to the calculated internal pressure amplitude exceeding the upper limit threshold, control the flow rate of the coolant that circulates through the cooler so as to increase the flow rate of the coolant; and
in response to the calculated internal pressure amplitude falling below the lower limit threshold, control the flow rate of the coolant that circulates through the cooler so as to decrease the flow rate of the coolant,

wherein the coolant does not pass through an evaporator as the coolant circulates.

4. An electronic component cooling device which cools an electronic component, the electronic component cooling device comprising:
a cooling pipe which thermally contacts the electronic component, the cooling pipe having a coolant flow path through which a coolant circulates, a coolant inlet which is an entry for the coolant into the coolant flow path, and a coolant outlet which is an exit for the coolant from the coolant flow path, wherein
a direction orthogonal to both a stacking direction of the cooling pipe and the electronic component and an alignment direction of the coolant inlet and the coolant outlet is defined as a width direction,
outer flow paths are formed at both outer portions of the coolant flow path in the width direction, and a central flow path is formed at a central portion of the coolant flow path in the width direction between the both outer portions, each of the outer flow paths and the central flow path including an inner fin that is formed in a different pattern, the central flow path of the coolant flow path overlapping the electronic component in the width direction when viewed from the stacking direction, and the outer flow paths of the coolant flow path not overlapping the electronic component in the width direction when viewed from the stacking direction,
the inner fin in each of the outer flow paths includes a plurality of separate angled portions disposed in alternating directions with respect to the alignment direction when viewed from the stacking direction, and a communication path which opens in the width direction is formed between ones of the separate angled portions that are adjacent to each other in the alignment direction, and
flow path resistance of the central flow path is less than flow path resistance of each of the outer flow paths.

5. The electronic component cooling device according to claim 4 , wherein
the inner fin of the central flow path is a continuous inner fin that is continuously formed between an upstream side of the electronic component and a downstream side of the electronic component in the alignment direction, and a plurality of branch flow paths separated from each other by the continuous inner fin are continuous without merging with each other between the upstream side of the electronic component and the downstream side of the electronic component.

6. The electronic component cooling device according to claim 4 , wherein the plurality of separate angled portions are sloped at approximately 30 to 60 degrees with respect to the alignment direction when viewed from the stacking direction.

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Guo Xiaolin
• Asagara Koji
• Takeuchi Kazuya

Classifications

• H05K7/20281 Primary

  Thermal management, e.g. liquid flow control · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• H05K7/20263

  Heat dissipaters releasing heat from coolant · CPC title

• H05K7/20272

  Accessories for moving fluid, for expanding fluid, for connecting fluid conduits, for distributing fluid, for removing gas or for preventing leakage, e.g. pumps, tanks or manifolds · CPC title

• H05K7/20872

  Liquid coolant without phase change · CPC title