JP2001318738A - Electronics - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic equipment capable of flexibly coping with the change of a heat radiation means. SOLUTION: This electronic equipment is provided with the heat radiation means 40 for radiating heat generated by a heat source inside the main body of the electronic equipment to the outside of the casing 2A of the main body and a lid 30 fitted to an opening part provided on the casing 2A for forming the outer wall of the main body integrally with the casing 2A and holding the heat radiation means 40. Even in the case that the heat radiation means is changed, just by changing the shape of the lid, the change of the heat radiation means is easily coped with without changing the shape of the casing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus, and is suitably applied to, for example, a notebook personal computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a personal computer, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) in a housing is provided.
) Generates heat as a result of the operation, and when the internal temperature of the CPU rises above a predetermined operation limit temperature, malfunctions such as malfunction or thermal destruction occur. For this reason, a personal computer generally has a heat radiation unit that absorbs heat generated by the CPU and discharges the heat to the outside of the housing.

In this heat radiation unit, a heat absorbing plate made of a material having a high thermal conductivity such as aluminum is installed so as to be in close contact with the outer surface of the CPU.
The heat generated by the PU is absorbed by heat conduction, and is transferred to the radiation fins provided on the heat absorbing plate.

[0004] The heat radiation unit cools the heat radiation fins by sucking outside air from the outside of the personal computer with a cooling fan and sending the sucked outside air as cooling air to the heat radiation fins, and also cools the cooling air to the personal computer. To the outside of the

Thus, in the heat radiation unit, the CPU
The generated heat is transferred to the radiating fins, and the radiating fins are cooled by cooling air blown from a cooling fan to cool the CPU.

[0006]

By the way, in the personal computer having such a configuration, the processing capacity of the CPU is improving year by year with the remarkable progress of the electronic technology, and the heat generation of the CPU is correspondingly increasing. .

When the amount of heat generated by the CPU increases,
Accordingly, it is necessary to improve the cooling capacity of the heat radiation unit. As a method for improving the cooling capacity, for example, it is conceivable to increase the size of the cooling fan to increase the amount of cooling air blown, or to increase the size of the radiation fin.

However, when the cooling capacity of the heat radiating unit is improved by increasing the size of the cooling fan and the heat radiating fin, the external shape of the heat radiating unit and the screw holes for screwing the heat radiating unit to the housing are required. Changes. For this reason, in the personal computer, the position of the screw hole on the housing side must be changed, and there is a problem that it is not possible to flexibly cope with an increase in the amount of heat generated by the CPU.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to propose an electronic device which can flexibly cope with a change in a heat radiation means.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided a housing for forming an outer wall of an electronic device and a housing provided inside the housing for transferring heat generated from a predetermined heat source to the housing. And a lid that detachably fits into an opening provided in the housing, is integrated with the housing to form an outer wall of the electronic device, and that holds the heat releasing means. Was.

The heat dissipating means is changed by holding the heat dissipating means by means of a lid which is fitted into an opening provided in the housing and forms an outer wall of the electronic device integrally with the housing. Even in this case, it is possible to cope with the change of the heat radiation means without changing the shape of the housing only by changing the shape of the lid.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a notebook personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a personal computer) to which the present invention is applied.
This is referred to as a notebook computer), and comprises a main body 2 and a display unit 3 attached to the main body 2 so as to be openable and closable.

The main body 2 has a plurality of operation keys 4 for inputting various characters, symbols, numbers, and the like on its upper surface, a touch pad 5 used for moving a mouse cursor, and left and right buttons of a normal mouse. Corresponding left-click button 5A and right-click button 5B, slide-type power switch 6, a plurality of display lamps 7 including LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), and a memory stick (a trademark of Sony Corporation) for a memory stick slot to be described later. A confirmation window 8 for confirming the insertion state is provided. A left speaker 9A and a right speaker 9B are provided on a front side surface of the main body 2.

The display section 3 has a TFT-LC
A liquid crystal display 10 using a liquid crystal display panel made of D (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Cryctal Display) is provided, and a microphone 11 is provided near the upper right end of the liquid crystal display 10 to collect sound through the microphone 11. Have been made to gain.

A claw 12 is provided at the center of the upper end of the front of the display unit 3 and a hole 13 is provided at a predetermined position of the main body 2 corresponding to the claw 12. The claws 12 are fitted and locked in the holes 13 in a state of being closed by the main body 2.

In addition, a slide lever 14 is provided on the upper surface of the display unit 3, and the slide lever 1
By sliding the 4, the lock of the claw 12 fitted in the hole 13 is released, and the display unit 3 can be expanded with respect to the main body 2.

On the right side of the main body 2, a headphone terminal 15, a microphone input terminal 16, a jog dial 17 capable of inputting a command for executing a predetermined process by rotating and pressing a dial, PCMCIA.
(Personal Computer MemoryCard International Associ
) standardized PC (Personal Computer) card compatible PC card slot 18 and its eject button 18A, 4-pin compatible IEEE (Institute of Electric)
al and Electronics Engineers) A 1394 terminal 19 and a modem terminal 20 for a modular jack are provided.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, a memory stick slot 21 corresponding to a memory stick, an eject button 21A thereof, a USB (Uni
A versal serial bus) terminal 22, an external display connector 23, an exhaust hole 24 used for heat radiation, and an external power supply connector 25 are provided.

A battery pack 26 is detachably attached to the bottom of the main body 2 with respect to the main body 2.
Sliding removal levers 27 and 28 for removing the battery pack 26 are provided.

Here, the battery pack 26 has a substantially cylindrical battery unit 26A and 26B connected in parallel with each other and integrated, and when the battery pack 26 is attached to the main body 2, one battery unit 26
A projects from the bottom surface of the main body 2 by about 5 [mm]. Near the right end and the left end of the battery unit 26A on the bottom surface of the main body 2, a foot 29 having the same cross-sectional shape as the projecting portion of the battery unit 26A is provided on the main body 2 in the same manner as the battery unit 26A. It is provided so as to protrude from the bottom surface.

On the left side of the bottom surface of the main body 2, a rectangular opening 2B is provided along the battery pack 26. A heat radiation unit lid 30 having an outer shape substantially the same as the contour of the opening 2B is fitted and attached to the opening 2B, and the heat radiation unit lid 30 is integrated with the housing 2A of the main body 2 to be attached thereto. The outer wall of the main body 2 is configured.

The heat-dissipating unit lid 30 is provided with an intake hole 31 through which a heat-dissipating unit described later sucks in cooling air.

Here, in the main body 2, since the battery unit 26A and the foot 29 are provided so as to protrude from the bottom surface of the main body 2, when the notebook computer 1 is used on a desk, for example, The main body 2 is placed with its bottom surface inclined with respect to the top surface, so that the air inlet 31 does not adhere to the upper surface of the desk. The cooling air can be reliably taken in from 31.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, a memory stick slot 21 is provided at the left end on the near side as shown in FIG.
, And a hard disk drive 33 is provided at the right end on the front side. The memory stick slot 21 and the hard disk drive 33
Are directly attached to the housing 2A of the main body 2, respectively.

The main body 2 has a CPU (Central
Processing Unit), Video Controller, RAM (Ra
A circuit board 34 on which an ndam access memory (ROM) and a read only memory (ROM) are mounted is provided, and a PC card slot 18 is provided at the upper right end of the circuit board 34.

Here, in the circuit board 34, the memory stick slot 21 and the hard disk drive 33
Has a shape in which the area in which is disposed is cut out, so that the memory stick slot 21 and the hard disk drive 33 do not overlap with the circuit board 34, thereby reducing the thickness of the main body 2 in the thickness direction. As a result, the thickness of the notebook computer 1 can be reduced.

Further, a heat radiating unit 40 for radiating the heat generated by the CPU to the outside of the notebook computer 1 is provided inside the main body 2.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the heat radiating unit 40, a heat absorbing plate 41, three heat pipes 42, a heat radiating plate 4
3 and a cooling fan 44.

The heat absorbing plate 41 is made of a metal plate having a high thermal conductivity, such as aluminum, and is provided with three heat pipes 42 at three parallel mounting holes formed at right angles to the thickness direction of the heat absorbing plate 41. Is inserted at one end.

The heat pipe 42 is made of a metal net (hereinafter, referred to as a wick) formed by finely knitting a copper wire.
The inside of the heat pipe 42 is reduced in pressure to a predetermined pressure, and a predetermined amount of pure water is sealed therein.

When one end of the heat pipe 42 is heated, the pure water that has permeated the wick near the end on the heated side evaporates, and the heat of vaporization at this time is reduced. , Heat is absorbed from the heated end. Then, in the heat pipe 42, the evaporated pure water is cooled and condensed at the end on the side that is not heated, and the condensing heat generated at this time is discharged to the outside of the heat pipe 42. The condensed pure water permeates the wick again and returns to the heated end by capillary action. Thus, the heat pipe 42 is configured to absorb heat at one end and release the absorbed heat at the other end.

The other end of the heat pipe 42 is inserted into a heat radiating plate 43 having a plurality of heat radiating fins.

The heat absorbing plate 41 is screwed to the circuit board 34 by four fixing screws 45 with its bottom surface in close contact with the upper surface of the CPU 50. The radiator plate 43 is provided with a fixing screw 4.
The screw 5 is screwed to the mounting portion 2C provided in the housing 2A, whereby the heat sink 43 is supported by the mounting portion 2C and the three heat pipes 42.

A plurality of radiating fins are provided on the radiating plate 43 at predetermined intervals so as to be orthogonal to the direction in which the heat pipes 42 are inserted. The exhaust hole 24 is arranged so as to perform the operation.

A cooling fan 44 is disposed at the other end of the heat radiating plate 43 in the longitudinal direction of the heat radiating fin.

The cooling fan 44 has a fan 44A (indicated by a broken line) mounted inside the cooling fan 44, which faces the air inlet 31 provided in the heat radiating unit cover 30, and is provided on the heat radiating unit cover 30. Two fixing screws 45 are used to screw the two mounting portions 30A.

Incidentally, the circuit board 34 has a shape in which a region where the heat radiating plate 43 and the cooling fan 44 are arranged is cut out, so that the heat radiating plate 43 and the cooling fan 44 are formed by the housing 2A and the heat radiating unit cover. 30 can be directly arranged.

In practice, in the heat radiation unit 40, C
The heat generated by the PU 50 is absorbed by the heat absorbing plate 41 and transmitted to the heat radiating plate 43 via the heat pipe 42.

On the other hand, the cooling fan 44 rotationally drives the fan 44A by a power supply supplied from a power supply unit (not shown), thereby sucking outside air as cooling air from outside the main body 2 through the intake hole 31. The radiating plate 43 is cooled by sending the sucked cooling air to the radiating plate 43. The cooling air that has cooled the radiator plate 43 is discharged to the outside of the main body 2 through the exhaust holes 24.

Thus, in the heat radiation unit 40, C
The CPU 50 is cooled by transferring the heat generated by the PU 50 to the radiator plate 43, and the radiator plate 43 is cooled by the cooling air blown from the cooling fan 44.

By the way, in the notebook personal computer 1, only the heat absorbing plate 41 which is in direct contact with the CPU 50 is arranged on the circuit board 34, and the heat radiating plate 43 and the cooling fan 44 which are relatively large in the thickness direction are connected to the housing 2A. And a heat dissipation unit lid 30A provided integrally with the housing 2A
As a result, the size of the main body 2 in the thickness direction can be reduced and the entire notebook computer 1 can be further thinned.

Here, in personal computers, generally, the processing capability of the CPU is improving year by year with the progress of electronic technology. With the increase in the processing capacity, the heat value of the CPU also increases, and accordingly, the cooling fan is increased in size to increase the amount of cooling air blown, or the heat sink is increased in size to increase the surface area of the radiating fin. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the cooling capacity of the heat radiating unit.

However, when the cooling capacity of the heat radiating unit is improved in this way, the shape of the heat radiating unit changes and the position of the screw hole for screwing the heat radiating unit changes, and therefore, the housing of the personal computer. However, there is a problem in that the shape of the mounting portion of the heat radiating unit must be changed, and the area of the intake hole must be increased in accordance with an increase in the amount of cooling air blown.

On the other hand, in the notebook personal computer 1 according to the present invention, the heat radiation unit cover 30 constituting the outer wall of the main body 2 is provided integrally with the housing 2A of the main body 2, and provided on the heat radiation unit cover 30. By attaching the cooling fan 44 which is a part of the heat radiating unit 40 to the mounting portion 30A, the heat radiating unit 5 shown in FIG.
1, a large fan 52A and a radiation fin 52B
Large cooling fan 52 with higher cooling capacity
In the case of using the cooling fan 52, if the position of the mounting portion 30A in the heat radiation unit lid 30 and the area of the air intake hole 31 are changed in accordance with the cooling fan 52, the size of the cooling fan 52 can be increased without changing the shape of the housing 2A. Can respond to

The power saving of the CPU causes the CP
When the calorific value of U is reduced, it is conceivable to reduce the size of the cooling fan or abolish the cooling fan to perform the heat radiation by natural ventilation in accordance with this. In the personal computer 1,
Only by changing the shape of the heat dissipating unit lid 30 can be accommodated without changing the shape of the housing 2A.

In the above configuration, in the notebook computer 1, the opening 2 B provided in the housing 2 A of the main body 2 is
The heat dissipating unit lid 30 which forms the outer wall of the main body 2 integrally with the housing 2A is fitted and attached.

In the notebook personal computer 1, a cooling fan 44 for releasing the heat generated by the CPU 50 to the outside of the notebook personal computer 1 is attached to the heat radiating unit cover 30, and the cooling fan 44 sucks outside air. Are provided.

Therefore, in this notebook computer 1, the CPU
Even if the processing speed of the heat treatment unit 50 increases and the amount of heat generated increases, and a correspondingly larger cooling fan is used, the mounting portion of the heat radiation unit lid 30 may be changed according to the larger cooling fan. It is possible to cope with an increase in the size of the cooling fan without changing the shape of the housing 2A simply by changing the position of the 30A and the area of the intake hole 31.

When a cooling fan is incorporated in a notebook personal computer having no heat-dissipating unit cover 30 as in the present invention, the cooling fan is first mounted on a sub-chassis corresponding to the shape of the cooling fan, and the sub-chassis is attached to the notebook. It is considered that if the cooling fan is attached to the housing of the personal computer main body, it is possible to easily cope with an increase in the size of the cooling fan similarly to the notebook personal computer 1 of the present invention simply by changing the shape of the sub-chassis.

However, in the case of the cooling fan mounting method using the sub-chassis, the sub-chassis is interposed between the cooling fan and the housing, so that the thickness of the notebook personal computer in the thickness direction increases.

On the other hand, in the notebook computer 1 of the present invention, the heat dissipating unit cover 3 fitted into the opening 2B of the housing 2A and integrally forming the outer wall of the main body 2 with the housing 2A.
Since the cooling fan 44 is directly attached to the cooling fan 0, it is possible to easily cope with an increase in the size of the cooling fan 44 while avoiding an increase in the size of the main body 2 in the thickness direction.

According to the above configuration, the heat dissipating unit lid 30 which forms an outer wall of the main body 2 integrally with the housing 2A is fitted into the opening 2B provided in the housing 2A of the main body 2. The heat radiation unit lid 30 is attached to the CPU 5
The processing speed of the CPU 50 is improved by installing the cooling fan 44 for releasing the heat generated by the cooling fan 0 to the outside of the notebook computer 1 and providing the air intake hole 31 for the cooling fan 44 to suck the outside air. Therefore, even when the calorific value increases and a larger cooling fan is used accordingly, the position of the mounting portion 30A in the heat radiation unit lid 30 and the intake hole 31 are changed according to the larger cooling fan. By simply changing the area of the cooling fan, it is possible to easily cope with an increase in the size of the cooling fan without changing the shape of the housing 2A.

In the above-described embodiment, only the cooling fan 44 is attached to the radiating unit cover 30. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the radiating plate 43, the heat pipe 42, etc. The components may be attached to the heat dissipation unit lid 30.

In the above embodiment, the main body 2
An opening 2B is provided on the bottom left side of the main body 2, and the heat dissipating unit lid 30 is fitted into the opening 2B. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the opening may be provided in various other places according to the internal arrangement of the main body 2. The unit 2B may be provided.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the intake hole 31 is provided in the heat radiation unit cover 30 and the exhaust hole 24 is provided in the housing 2A. However, the present invention is not limited to this. An exhaust hole may be provided and an intake hole may be provided in the housing 2A.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the heat radiation unit for cooling the CPU of the notebook personal computer 1 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is not limited thereto. Such as a controller, a chipset that controls the memory and the internal bus, etc.
The present invention may be applied to a heat radiating unit for cooling various other electronic components serving as heat sources.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the notebook personal computer 1 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, a desktop personal computer or a PDA (Pe
rsonal Data Assistant) or IRD (Integrated Receiver Deco) for receiving digital satellite broadcasting.
rder) and other various electronic devices.

[0059]

As described above, according to the present invention, a housing constituting an outer wall of an electronic device, and a heat source provided inside the housing and emitting heat generated from a predetermined heat source to the outside of the housing. By providing a heat dissipating means and a lid that is detachably fitted into an opening provided in the housing, is integrated with the housing to form an outer wall of the electronic device, and a lid that holds the heat dissipating means, Even when the heat radiating means is changed, it is possible to easily cope with the change of the heat radiating means without changing the shape of the housing only by changing the shape of the lid.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of the entire configuration of a notebook personal computer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a configuration of a left side surface and a lower surface of the notebook computer.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing an internal configuration of a notebook personal computer main body.

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing a configuration of a heat radiation unit.

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view showing the configuration of another heat radiation unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... notebook computer, 2 ... body, 3 ... display unit, 4
... operation keys, 5 ... touch pad, 10 ... liquid crystal display, 24 ... exhaust holes, 26 ... battery pack,
29: foot, 30: heat dissipation unit lid, 31: intake hole, 34: circuit board, 40, 51 ... heat dissipation unit,
41: heat absorbing plate, 42: heat pipe, 43: heat radiating plate, 44, 52: cooling fan, 50: CPU.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Bunsyo Hayashi 6-35-35 Kita-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation (72) Inventor Shin-ichiro Matsuyama 6-7-35 Kita-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony F term in the company (reference) 5E322 AA01 AB01 BA01 BB10 DB08 EA11

Claims (3)

[Claims] A housing that forms an outer wall of the electronic device; a radiating means provided inside the housing and for releasing heat generated from a predetermined heat source to the outside of the housing; Is removably fitted into the opening,
An electronic device, comprising: a cover integrated with the housing to form an outer wall of the electronic device; 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lid has an intake hole for injecting cooling air for releasing the heat generated from the heat source by the heat radiating means to the outside of the housing. Electronics. 3. The lid according to claim 1, wherein the lid has an exhaust hole for discharging cooling air for releasing the heat generated from the heat source to the outside of the housing. Electronics.