Cooled electronic system with liquid-cooled cold plate and thermal spreader coupled to electronic component

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9414523-B2
Application number	US-201314086128-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 21, 2013
Priority date	May 6, 2011
Publication date	Aug 9, 2016
Grant date	Aug 9, 2016

Abstract

Apparatus and method are provided for facilitating cooling of an electronic component. The apparatus includes a liquid-cooled cold plate and a thermal spreader associated with the cold plate. The cold plate includes multiple coolant-carrying channel sections extending within the cold plate, and a thermal conduction surface with a larger surface area than a surface area of the component to be cooled. The thermal spreader includes one or more heat pipes including multiple heat pipe sections. One or more heat pipe sections are partially aligned to a first region of the cold plate, that is, where aligned to the surface to be cooled, and partially aligned to a second region of the cold plate, which is outside the first region. The one or more heat pipes facilitate distribution of heat from the electronic component to coolant-carrying channel sections of the cold plate located in the second region of the cold plate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cooled electronic system comprising:
an electronic component;
a cooling apparatus coupled to the electronic component for dissipating heat from the electronic component, the cooling apparatus comprising:
a liquid-cooled cold plate comprising a thermally conductive material with a plurality of coolant-carrying channel sections extending therein, the liquid-cooled cold plate comprising a thermal conduction surface having a first surface area, and wherein the electronic component comprises a surface to be cooled, the surface to be cooled comprising a second surface area, wherein the liquid-cooled cold plate is oversized relative to the electronic component, with the first surface area of the thermal conduction surface of the liquid-cooled cold plate being greater than the second surface area of the surface to be cooled of the electronic component, and wherein heat is transferred from the surface to be cooled of the electronic component to the thermal conduction surface of the liquid-cooled cold plate, and the liquid-cooled cold plate comprises a first region where the surface to be cooled aligns to the liquid-cooled cold plate and a second region outside the first region, and wherein at least one first coolant-carrying channel section of the plurality of coolant-carrying channel sections is disposed, at least in part, within the first region, and at least one second coolant-carrying channel section of the plurality of coolant-carrying channel sections of the liquid-cooled cold plate is disposed in the second region, outside the first region, and laterally offset from the electronic component;
a first thermal spreader disposed between the electronic component and the liquid-cooled cold plate, and having opposing first and second main surfaces, the first main surface of the first thermal spreader being coupled to the thermal conduction surface of the liquid-cooled cold plate, and the first thermal spreader comprising a plurality of heat pipes, each comprising multiple heat pipe sections, at least one heat pipe section of the multiple heat pipe sections being partially aligned to the first region of the liquid-cooled cold plate, between the electronic component and the at least one first coolant-carrying channel section of the liquid-cooled cold plate, and partially aligned to the second region of the liquid-cooled cold plate, below the at least one second coolant-carrying channel section of the liquid-cooled cold plate, laterally away from the electronic component, the plurality of heat pipes of the first thermal spreader facilitating distributing heat laterally outward from the electronic component to the at least one second coolant-carrying channel section of the liquid-cooled cold plate in the second region of the liquid-cooled cold plate, and wherein the plurality of heat pipes contact each other lengthwise between the electronic component and the first region of the liquid-cooled cold plate;
a second thermal spreader, the second thermal spreader being coupled to a main surface of the liquid-cooled cold plate, the main surface of the liquid-cooled cold plate and the thermal conduction surface of the liquid-cooled cold plate being opposite sides of the liquid-cooled cold plate; and
at least one coolant-carrying tube, the at least one coolant-carrying tube extending into, through and out from, the liquid-cooled cold plate and being embedded, where extending through the liquid-cooled cold plate, within the thermally conductive material at the thermal conduction surface thereof, the at least one coolant-carrying tube being exposed at the thermal conduction surface of the liquid-cooled cold plate so as to be coupled to a main surface of the first thermal spreader, the at least one coolant-carrying tube comprising the plurality of coolant-carrying channel sections.

2. The cooled electronic system of claim 1 , wherein the first region of the liquid-cooled cold plate is offset from a center of the liquid-cooled cold plate.

3. The cooled electronic system of claim 1 , wherein the electronic component is a first electronic component and the cooling apparatus facilitates dissipating heat from multiple electronic components, the multiple electronic components comprising the first electronic component and a second electronic component, and wherein both the first electronic component and the second electronic component are coupled to the first thermal spreader.

4. The cooled electronic system of claim 1 , wherein at least two heat pipe sections of the multiple heat pipe sections within the first thermal spreader are straight heat pipe sections, and wherein the at least two heat pipe sections are disposed parallel to each other in the first thermal spreader.

5. The cooled electronic system of claim 4 , wherein the at least two heat pipe sections are physically contacting within the first thermal spreader.

6. The cooled electronic system of claim 1 , wherein a first heat pipe section of the multiple heat pipe sections of the first thermal spreader is a U-shaped heat pipe section.

7. The cooled electronic system of claim 6 , wherein a second heat pipe section of the multiple heat pipe sections of the first thermal spreader is a straight heat pipe section.

8. The cooled electronic system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a coolant loop coupled in fluid communication with the plurality of coolant-carrying channel sections of the liquid-cooled cold plate; and
an outdoor-air-cooled heat exchange unit coupled to facilitate heat transfer from the liquid-cooled cold plate to the outdoor-air-cooled heat exchange unit via, at least in part, the coolant loop, the outdoor-air-cooled heat exchange cooling unit passing through the coolant loop by dissipating heat from the coolant to outdoor ambient air.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Chainer Timothy J
• Graybill David P
• Iyengar Madhusudan K
• Kamath Vinod
• Kochuparambil Bejoy J
• Schmidt Roger R
• Steinke Mark E

Classifications

• H05K7/20336 Primary

  Heat pipes, e.g. wicks or capillary pumps · CPC title

• H05K7/20772 Primary

  within server blades for removing heat from heat source · CPC title

• F28D15/02

  in which the medium condenses and evaporates, e.g. heat pipes {(heat pipes used in solar heat collectors F24S10/95; in radiators F28D1/0226; in nuclear reactors G21C15/257)} · CPC title

• H05K7/20936

  Liquid coolant with phase change · CPC title

• H05K7/20509

  Multiple-component heat spreaders; Multi-component heat-conducting support plates; Multi-component non-closed heat-conducting structures · CPC title