Tunable two phase liquid cooling thermal management method and apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9983641-B2
Application number	US-201615140014-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 27, 2016
Priority date	Apr 27, 2016
Publication date	May 29, 2018
Grant date	May 29, 2018

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, and systems associated with tunable pumped two-phase liquid cooling thermal management are disclosed. In embodiments, a tunable cooling apparatus may include a thermoelectric cooler device, TEC, that has a hot side and a cold side, where the cold side is to cool the coolant in route to an inlet manifold of the cold plate before the coolant enters the inlet manifold, and the hot side may be to warm the coolant in route from an outlet manifold of the cold plate after the coolant flows through the cold plate and exits the outlet manifold and or vice versa. In embodiments, the coolant may be either in a liquid state or in a vapor state. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A tunable cooling apparatus, comprising:
a thermoelectric module device, TEM, having a hot side and a cold side, and coupled to an energy source;
wherein the cold side is to cool a coolant enroute to an inlet manifold of a cold plate before the coolant enters the inlet manifold, and the hot side is to warm the coolant enroute from an outlet manifold of the cold plate after the coolant flows through the cold plate and exits the outlet manifold;
wherein the TEM is to variably receive an amount of energy from the energy source, based upon a measurement of a vapor content of the coolant exiting the TEM hot side, to variably control a first temperature of the TEM hot side and a second temperature of the TEM cold side; and
a heat exchanger module having an inlet and an outlet, coupled with the TEM, to receive coolant warmed by the TEM hot side and send cooled coolant to the inlet manifold of the cold plate via the TEM, wherein the warmed coolant received from the TEM hot side has an increased vapor content to cause thermal performance of the heat exchanger module to increase.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the coolant is in a liquid state, a vapor state, or in a combination liquid and vapor state.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the coolant exiting from the outlet manifold of the cold plate has a first vapor content value, and the coolant warmed by the TEM hot side has a second vapor content value, wherein the first vapor content value is less than the second vapor content value.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising the energy source, wherein the energy source is an electrical energy source to variably provide an amount of electrical energy to variably control the first temperature of the TEM hot side and the second temperature of the TEM cold side.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a pump to pump the coolant towards the inlet manifold of the cold plate, and away from the outlet manifold of the cold plate.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the cold plate is thermally coupled to a processor.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the TEM further comprises:
a thermoelectric cooler, TEC, coupled to the energy source, wherein the TEC has a TEC cold side and a TEC hot side;
a first block coupled to the TEC cold side; and
a second block coupled to the TEC hot side.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the first block or the second block is a solid block of aluminum or a solid block of copper.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cooling apparatus includes a chassis.

10. A method of tuning cooling in a cooling system, comprising:
pumping coolant through the cooling system comprising a pump and a thermoelectric module device, TEM;
applying electrical energy to the TEM based upon a measurement of a vapor content of the coolant exiting the TEM hot side; and
varying the applied electrical energy to the TEM to add heat to the pumped coolant to increase a vapor content of the coolant prior to the coolant entering a heat exchanger to cause thermal performance of the heat exchanger to increase.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein applying electrical energy comprises applying direct current, DC.

12. A tunable cooling apparatus, comprising:
a thermoelectric module device, TEM, having a hot side and a cold side, and coupled to an energy source;
wherein the hot side is to heat a coolant enroute to an inlet manifold of a cold plate before the coolant enters the inlet manifold, and the cold side is to cool the coolant enroute from an outlet manifold of the cold plate after the coolant flows through the cold plate and exits the outlet manifold;
wherein the TEM is to variably receive an amount of energy from the energy source based upon a measurement of a vapor content of the coolant exiting the TEM hot side to variably control a first temperature of the TEM hot side and a second temperature of the TEM cold side; and
a heat exchanger module having an inlet and an outlet, coupled with the TEM, to receive coolant cooled by the TEM cold side and send cooled coolant to the inlet manifold of the cold plate via the TEM, wherein the received coolant cooled by the TEM cold side is to aid the heat exchanger module in extracting heat from the coolant.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the coolant exiting from the outlet manifold of the cold plate has a first vapor content value, and the coolant warmed by the TEM hot side has a second vapor content value, wherein the first vapor content value is greater than the second vapor content value.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , further comprising the energy source, wherein the energy source is an electrical energy source to variably provide an amount of electrical energy to variably control the first temperature of the TEM hot side and the second temperature of the TEM cold side.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , further comprising a pump coupled with the TEM to pump the coolant towards the inlet manifold of the cold plate, and away from the outlet manifold of the cold plate.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the cold plate is thermally coupled to a processor chip.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the TEM further comprises:
a thermoelectric cooler, TEC, coupled to the energy source, wherein the TEC has a TEC cold side and a TEC hot side;
a first block coupled to the TEC cold side; and
a second block coupled to the TEC hot side.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the first block or the second block is a solid block of aluminum or a solid block of copper.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Kulkarni Devdatta P
• Hanna Timothy G

Classifications

• H10P95/00

  Generic processes or apparatus for manufacture or treatments not covered by the other groups of this subclass · CPC title

• G06F2200/201

  Cooling arrangements using cooling fluid · CPC title

• G06F1/20 Primary

  Cooling means · CPC title

• H01L35/00

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L37/00

  Electricity · mapped topic