Thermal isolation techniques

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9348377-B2
Application number	US-201414244734-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2014
Priority date	Mar 14, 2014
Publication date	May 24, 2016
Grant date	May 24, 2016

Abstract

Various embodiments described herein include systems, methods and/or devices used to dissipate heat generated by electronic components in an electronic system (e.g., a memory system that includes closely spaced memory modules). In one aspect, an electronic assembly includes a first circuit board with one or more heat generating components coupled thereto. The electronic assembly further includes a second circuit board with one or more heat sensitive components coupled thereto. The electronic assembly also includes a thermal barrier interconnect. The thermal barrier interconnect electrically couples the first circuit board to the second circuit board. In some embodiments, thermal barrier interconnect is a flexible interconnect with a lower thermal conductivity than the first circuit board and the second circuit board. The thermal barrier interconnect forms a thermal barrier between the first and second circuit boards which protects the heat sensitive components from the heat generating components.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic assembly for dissipating heat, comprising:
a first rigid circuit board having a first predefined thermal conductivity, with one or more heat generating components coupled thereto;
a second rigid circuit board having a second predefined thermal conductivity, with one or more heat sensitive components coupled thereto, wherein the one or more heat sensitive components are more sensitive to heat than the one or more heat generating components; and
a flexible circuit board having a third predefined thermal conductivity, wherein the third predefined thermal conductivity is less than the first and second predefined thermal conductivities, the flexible circuit board electrically coupling the first rigid circuit board to the second rigid circuit board and forming, with the first and second rigid circuit boards, an airflow channel that directs airflow to dissipate heat generated by the one or more heat generating components.

2. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the flexible circuit board is made from a kapton material.

3. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the flexible circuit board is made from a polyimide material.

4. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the flexible circuit board has a lower thermal mass than the first and second rigid circuit boards.

5. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the flexible circuit board includes power planes for CORE voltage and the I/O voltage.

6. The electronic assembly of claim 5 , wherein the flexible circuit board does not include a plurality of power planes found in the first and second rigid circuit boards.

7. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the one or more heat generating components include one or more power supply electronic components.

8. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the one or more heat generating components include a NAND flash controller.

9. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the one or more heat sensitive components include NAND flash memory.

10. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first rigid circuit board, the second rigid circuit board are disposed next to one another in a substantially common plane.

11. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first rigid circuit board is on a first plane and the second rigid circuit board is on a second plane substantially parallel to the first plane and the first and second rigid circuit boards are separated by a space.

12. The electronic assembly of claim 11 , further comprising a fastener configured to couple the first rigid circuit board to the second rigid circuit board, wherein the fastener, first rigid circuit board, second rigid circuit board, and flexible circuit board surround the space and form the air flow channel.

13. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein, in operation:
the first rigid circuit board has a first temperature; and
the second rigid circuit board has a second temperature lower than the first temperature.

14. The electronic assembly of claim 13 , wherein, in operation, the second temperature is 5 to 20 degrees Celsius lower than the first temperature.

15. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the electronic assembly is a solid state disk drive.

16. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the electronic assembly does not include a case or a heat sink.

17. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first rigid circuit board and second rigid circuit board comprises one or more solid state drives (SSDs) or one or more three-dimensional (3D) memory devices.

18. A method of manufacturing an electronic assembly for dissipating heat, comprising:
providing an electronic assembly, comprising:
a first rigid circuit board having a first predefined thermal conductivity, with one or more heat generating components coupled thereto;
a second rigid circuit board having a second predefined thermal conductivity, with one or more heat sensitive components coupled thereto, wherein the one or more heat sensitive components are more sensitive to heat than the one or more heat generating components; and
a flexible circuit board having a third predefined thermal conductivity, wherein the third predefined thermal conductivity is less than the first and second predefined thermal conductivities;

coupling the first rigid circuit board to the second rigid circuit board with the flexible circuit board; and
forming, with the first and second rigid circuit boards and the flexible circuit board, an airflow channel that directs airflow to dissipate heat generated by the one or more heat generating components.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the electronic assembly is configured to operate so that the second rigid circuit board operates at a temperature that is 5 to 20 degrees Celsius lower than the temperature of the first rigid circuit board in a steady state operation.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein at least one of the first rigid circuit board and the second rigid circuit board comprises one or more solid state drives (SSDs) or one or more three-dimensional (3D) memory devices.

21. A method of dissipating heat from an electronic assembly, comprising:
providing an electronic assembly, comprising:
a first rigid circuit board having a first predefined thermal conductivity, with one or more heat generating components coupled thereto;
a second rigid circuit board having a second predefined thermal conductivity, with one or more heat sensitive components coupled thereto, wherein the one or more heat sensitive components are more sensitive to heat than the one or more heat generating components; and
a flexible circuit board having a third predefined thermal conductivity, wherein the third predefined thermal conductivity is less than the first and second predefined thermal conductivities, wherein the first rigid circuit board is coupled to the second rigid circuit board with the flexible circuit board; and

directing airflow through a space formed between the first rigid circuit board and the second rigid circuit board to dissipate heat.

22. The electronic assembly of claim 1 , wherein the one or more heat generating components are coupled to one side of the first rigid circuit board, and the heat sensitive components are coupled to both sides of the second rigid circuit board.

23. The electronic assembly of claim 22 , wherein the first rigid circuit board is coupled to a base board.

Assignees

• Sandisk Entpr Ip Llc

Inventors

• Dean David
• Ellis Robert W

Classifications

• H05K7/20

  Modifications to facilitate cooling, ventilating, or heating · CPC title

• G06F1/203 Primary

  for portable computers, e.g. for laptops · CPC title

• G06F1/20 Primary

  Cooling means · CPC title

• H05K7/20518

  Unevenly distributed heat load, e.g. different sectors at different temperatures, localised cooling, hot spots · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title