Cooling solution for a dock

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9921618-B2
Application number	US-201514998063-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 24, 2015
Priority date	Dec 24, 2015
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

The present techniques are related a dock with a cooling solution. The performance dock includes a thermoelectric device, an alignment mechanism, and an air mover. The alignment mechanism is to align the computing device when docking the computing device, and the thermoelectric device is to cool the computing device when docked, and the air mover is to enable an airflow through the dock to cool the thermoelectric device when the computing device is docked.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A dock for a computing device, comprising:
a thermoelectric device positioned behind a thermally conductive front material;
an alignment mechanism positioned behind the thermally conductive front material; and
an air mover, wherein the alignment mechanism is to align the computing device when docking the computing device, and the thermoelectric device is to cool the computing device when docked, and the air mover is to enable an airflow through the dock to cool the thermoelectric device when the computing device is docked.

2. The dock of claim 1 , wherein the thermoelectric device is a Peltier ceramic plate.

3. The dock of claim 1 , wherein the alignment mechanism includes at least one magnetic strip.

4. The dock of claim 1 , wherein the dock comprises at least partially hardware logic that is to control the thermoelectric device.

5. The dock of claim 1 , wherein the airflow through the dock is a multi-speed airflow and the speed of the airflow is scaled according to a use of the computing device.

6. The dock of claim 1 , wherein the thermoelectric device is to cool the computing device via a heat flux between the thermoelectric device and the computing device.

7. The dock of claim 1 , wherein the thermoelectric device is to cool the computing device through a Peltier effect between materials of the thermoelectric device and materials of the computing device.

8. The dock of claim 1 , wherein the dock further comprises a heat exchanger.

9. The dock of claim 1 , wherein the computing device includes a corresponding alignment mechanism to secure the computing device in physical contact with the thermoelectric device.

10. The dock of claim 1 , wherein the air mover is an electrokinetic system.

11. A system, comprising:
a dock, wherein the dock comprises:
a microcontroller;
a thermoelectric device positioned behind a thermally conductive front material;
an alignment mechanism positioned behind the thermally conductive front material; and
an air mover, wherein the alignment mechanism is to align a docked computing device, and the microcontroller is to enable the thermoelectric device to cool the docked computing device, and the air mover is to enable an airflow through the dock to cool the thermoelectric device.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the thermoelectric device is in physical contact with the docked computing device.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the dock comprises air restrictors to guide the airflow across the computing device.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the computing device comprises a vent and an air restrictor of the dock is configured to guide airflow through the vent of the computing device.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the airflow through the dock is to control condensation within the dock.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein airflow through the dock is scaled according to the use of the docked computing device.

17. A method for configuring a dock, comprising:
configuring the dock to receive a thermoelectric cooling plate, wherein a thermoelectric device and an alignment mechanism is positioned behind a thermally conductive front material; and
configuring the dock to receive a computing device via the alignment mechanism.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the thermoelectric cooling plate is a Peltier ceramic cooling plate.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the thermoelectric cooling plate is physically coupled with a thermally conductive material of the dock.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein an air mover of the dock is to enable a multi-speed airflow and the speed of the airflow is scaled according to a use of the computing device.

21. The method of claim 17 , comprising configuring a heat exchanger within the dock.

22. The method of claim 17 , wherein the thermoelectric cooling plate is to cool the computing device according to a use profile of the computing device.

23. The method of claim 17 , wherein the dock is configured to physically couple with the computing device to enable thermoelectric cooling of the computing device.

24. The method of claim 17 , wherein the dock is configured to physically couple with the computing device in at least one of a landscape mode and a portrait mode of the computing device.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Magi Aleksander
• Gallina Mark J
• Biber Catharina
• Guo Xi
• Garbarino Gabriele C

Classifications

• G06F1/1632

  External expansion units, e.g. docking stations · CPC title

• G06F1/20 Primary

  Cooling means · CPC title