Fabricating cooled electronic system with liquid-cooled cold plate and thermal spreader

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9936607-B2
Application number	US-201414564265-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2014
Priority date	May 6, 2011
Publication date	Apr 3, 2018
Grant date	Apr 3, 2018

Abstract

Methods are provided for facilitating cooling of an electronic component. The methods include providing 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 method of facilitating dissipation of heat from at least one electronic component, the method comprising:
providing a cooling apparatus configured to couple to at least one electronic component to be cooled, the cooling apparatus having a larger footprint size than the at least one electronic component to be cooled, and 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 at least one 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 at least one electronic component, with the first surface area of the thermal conduction surface being greater than the second surface area of the surface to be cooled and in operation, heat is transferred from the surface to be cooled of the at least one 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;
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 within the thermally conductive material at the thermal conduction surface where extending through the liquid-cooled cold plate, 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 first main surface of a first thermal spreader, the at least one coolant-carrying tube comprising the plurality of coolant-carrying channel sections;
the first thermal spreader being disposed between the at least one electronic component and the liquid-cooled cold plate, and having the first main surface and an opposing second main surface, 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 being a block of thermally conductive material with a plurality of heat pipes disposed therein, each heat pipe 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 at least one 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 at least one electronic component, the plurality of heat pipes of the first thermal spreader facilitating distributing heat laterally outward from the at least one 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 are discrete heat pipe structures inserted into the block of thermally conductive material of the first thermal spreader so that the heat pipes physically contact each other lengthwise between the at least one electronic component and the first region of the liquid-cooled cold plate; and
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
wherein the first thermal spreader and the liquid-cooled cold plate are co-extensive.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first thermal spreader and the liquid-cooled cold plate are each integrated within a common, thermally conductive structure.

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

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one electronic component comprises multiple electronic components, including a 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.

5. The method 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.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a second heat pipe section of the multiple heat pipe sections of the first thermal spreader is a straight heat pipe section.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing a coolant loop coupled in fluid communication with the plurality of coolant-carrying channel sections of the liquid-cooled cold plate; and
providing 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 unit cooling coolant passing through the coolant loop by dissipating heat from the coolant to outdoor ambient air.

8. A method comprising:
providing at least one electronic component; and
providing a cooling apparatus coupled to the at least one electronic component for dissipating heat from the at least one electronic component, the cooling apparatus having a larger footprint size than the at least one electronic component, and 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 at least one 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 at least one 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 at least one electronic component, and in operation, heat is transferred from the surface to be cooled of the at least one 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 section 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;
at least one coolant-carrying tube, the at least one coolant-carrying tube extending into, through and out from, the liquid-cooled

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H05K7/20509

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

• H05K7/20936

  Liquid coolant with phase change · CPC title

• H05K7/20336 Primary

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

• H05K7/20772 Primary

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