Method, system and apparatus for cooling a mobile device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9615484-B2
Application number	US-201414204300-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2014
Priority date	Mar 11, 2014
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

Method, system and apparatus for cooling a mobile device is provided. The device comprises: a housing comprising one or more apertures; a heat producing device; a cooling apparatus adjacent the heat producing device, the cooling apparatus comprising: an inlet; an outlet; and, a thermal pump configured to: draw air from the inlet to the heat producing device to form heated air, and exhaust the heated air from the outlet; and, one or more carbon nanotubes, a respective entrance of each of the one or more carbon nanotubes located at the outlet of the cooling apparatus, and a respective exit of each of the one or more carbon nanotubes terminating at a respective aperture of the one or more apertures, so that the heated air is vented through the one or more apertures.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device comprising:
a housing comprising one or more apertures;
a heat producing device;
a cooling apparatus adjacent the heat producing device, the cooling apparatus comprising: an inlet; an outlet; and, a thermal pump configured to: draw air from the inlet to the heat producing device to form heated air, and exhaust the heated air from the outlet; and,
one or more carbon nanotubes, a respective entrance of each of the one or more carbon nanotubes located at the outlet of the cooling apparatus, and a respective exit of each of the one or more carbon nanotubes terminating at a respective aperture of the one or more apertures, so that the heated air is vented through the one or more apertures, each of the one or more apertures comprising an aperture for one or more of a connector for an auxiliary device, an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) port, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port, an audio jack, a speaker and a microphone.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more carbon nanotubes comprises respective closing portions, the device further comprising one or more controllers electrically connected to the respective closing portions, each of the one or more controllers configured to independently open and close the respective closing portions of each of the one or more carbon nanotubes in a sequence to assist with flow of the heated air there through.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein each of the one or more controllers is further configured to close one or more of the respective closing portions to restrict flow of the heated air there through to prevent the heated air from flowing through an associated carbon nanotube.

4. The device of claim 2 , further comprising a processor configured to:
communicate with the one or more controllers to close a given carbon nanotube based on a given associated event occurring at the processor.

5. The device of claim 4 , further comprising a communication interface, the microphone, and the speaker for conducting voice calls at the device, the speaker comprising a speaker aperture, of the one or more apertures, wherein the processor is further configured to: detect a voice call occurring at the device and communicate with the one or more controllers to close a carbon nanotube connecting the cooling apparatus to the speaker aperture.

6. The device of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
detect that the voice call has ended and communicate with the one or more controllers to open the carbon nanotube connecting the cooling apparatus to the speaker aperture.

7. The device of claim 1 , further comprising one or more flex cables, at least a portion of each of the one or more carbon nanotubes mounted thereupon.

8. The device of claim 7 , wherein cooling apparatus is also mounted on the one or more flex cables.

9. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a manifold located at the outlet, the manifold comprising respective entrances for each of the one or more carbon nanotubes.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the respective exit of one or more of the carbon nanotubes comprises a hole in a connector at a respective aperture.

11. The device of claim 1 , wherein the thermal pump comprises two electromagnets, a flexible single wing fan located there between, and a blocking flap, the electromagnets configured to control the flexible single wing fan to vibrate to generate vortices in the air, and the blocking flap configured to direct the vortices towards the outlet.

12. The device of claim 1 , wherein walls of each of the one more carbon nanotubes are configured to conduct heat away from the cooling apparatus.

13. The device of claim 1 , further comprising one or more of a mobile communication device, a mobile electronic device, a tablet device, and a laptop device.

Assignees

• Blackberry Ltd

Inventors

• Mankowski Peter
• Geris Ryan Alexander
• Wennemer Dietmar Frank

Classifications

• H10W40/43

  by flowing gases, e.g. forced air cooling · CPC title

• H10W40/25

  characterised by their materials · CPC title

• H05K7/20145

  Means for directing air flow, e.g. ducts, deflectors, plenum or guides · CPC title

• F04B45/065 Primary

  with electric drive · CPC title

• H01L23/373

  Electricity · mapped topic