US20230122387A1

US20230122387A1 - Vapor chamber with unequal cross-sectional widths

Info

Publication number: US20230122387A1
Application number: US17/503,241
Authority: US
Inventors: Chun-Hung Lin; Han-Lin Chen
Original assignee: Taiwan Microloops Corp
Current assignee: Taiwan Microloops Corp
Priority date: 2021-10-15
Filing date: 2021-10-15
Publication date: 2023-04-20

Abstract

A vapor chamber includes a case, an evaporation portion, a condensation portion, a transmission portion, and a working fluid. The case has a chamber. The evaporation portion, the condensation portion and the transmission portion are formed in different areas of the case. The evaporation portion has a first chamber room. The condensation portion has a second chamber room. A cross-sectional width of the second chamber room is less than a cross-sectional width of the first chamber room. The transmission portion is formed between the evaporation portion and the condensation portion. The transmission portion has a passage communicating with the first and the second chamber room. The passage has a first end adjacent to the evaporation portion and a second end adjacent to the condensation portion. A width of the first end is greater than a width of the second end. The working fluid is disposed in the chamber.

Description

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to a vapor chamber, particularly to a vapor chamber with unequal cross-sectional widths.

Related Art

With the uninterrupted increase of operational speed of electronic components, the heat generated therefrom becomes higher and higher. To effectively solve the problem of high heat, the industry has widely used vapor chambers with great thermo-conductivity. Because they possess a wide heated area to be directly attached on a heat source for heat conduction, the arrangement of the peripheral devices can be simplified. Thus, vapor chambers are the mainstream of future development.
The related-art vapor chamber has a wide heated area, but the flow of the evaporated working fluid is so chaotic. That limits its performance of heat dissipation. Usually, the related-art vapor chambers are of a simple geometric shape such as a square or a rectangle, so the fields and ranges of applications are considerably restricted. Also, in specific circumstances, there are using demands of different cross-sectional areas for vapor chambers. Such a vapor chamber with unequal cross-sectional areas has drawbacks of mutual interference and block of flows of vaporized working fluid and liquid working fluid, so it is not developed yet.
In view of this, the inventors have devoted themselves to the above-mentioned prior art, researched intensively and cooperated with the application of science to try to solve the above-mentioned problems.

SUMMARY

An object of the disclosure is to provide a vapor chamber with unequal cross-sectional areas, which makes the evaporated working fluid slowly pass the passage and the liquid working fluid passing the passage be free from interfering by the evaporated working fluid to smoothly flow back to the evaporation portion.
To accomplish the above object, the disclosure provides a vapor chamber with unequal cross-sectional areas, which includes a case, an evaporation portion, a condensation portion, a transmission portion, and a working fluid. The case has a chamber. The evaporation portion is formed in one part of the case and has a first chamber room in the chamber. The condensation portion is formed in another part of the case and located on one side of the evaporation portion. The condensation portion has a second chamber room in the chamber. A cross-sectional width of the second chamber room is less than a cross-sectional width of the first chamber room. The transmission portion is formed in the case and between the evaporation portion and the condensation portion. The transmission portion has a passage communicating with the first chamber room and the second chamber room in the chamber. The passage has a first end adjacent to the evaporation portion and a second end adjacent to the condensation portion. A width of the first end is greater than a width of the second end. The working fluid is disposed in the chamber.
The disclosure further has the following functions. The shape arrangements of the partitions and the passage may reduce the passing speed of evaporated working fluid. The unequal widths of the passage may reduce the interference and block to the returning liquid working fluid when the evaporated working fluid passes the passage, and further avoid dry-out of the vapor chamber. The integration arrangement of the wick structure may make the liquid working fluid be free from interruption or discontinuity during reflowing, and the reflowing amount may be increased.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of the vapor chamber of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a see-through view of the vapor chamber of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the vapor chamber of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a cooler with the vapor chamber of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 4 along another direction;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a cooler with another embodiment of the vapor chamber of the disclosure; and

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of still another embodiment of the vapor chamber of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technical contents of this disclosure will become apparent with the detailed description of embodiments accompanied with the illustration of related drawings as follows. It is intended that the embodiments and drawings disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.
Please refer to FIGS. 1-3 . The disclosure provides a vapor chamber with unequal cross-sectional areas, which includes a case 10, an evaporation portion 20, a condensation portion 30, a transmission portion 40 and a working fluid 50.
The case 10 of the embodiment includes a lower shell 11 and an upper shell 12. The upper shell 12 and the lower shell 11 are made of a material with desired conductivity, such as copper, aluminum, magnesium, or an alloy thereof. Please further refer to FIG. 4 . The lower shell 11 has a bottom plate 111, a lower surrounding wall 112 bended and extended upward from a periphery of the bottom plate 111, and a lower sealing plate 113 horizontally extended from a periphery of the lower surrounding wall 112. The upper shell 12 has a top plate 121, an upper surrounding wall 122 bended and extended downward from the top plate 121, and an upper sealing plate 123 horizontally extended from a periphery of the upper surrounding wall 122. The upper shell 12 correspondingly covers the lower shell 11. The upper sealing plate 123 is correspondingly adhered to the lower sealing plate 113. A chamber A is formed inside the upper shell 12 and the lower shell 11. Also, the inside surface of the top plate 121 are provided with multiple support rods 124 spacedly for preventing both the top plate 121 and the bottom plate 111 from denting and deforming.
The evaporation portion 20 of the embodiment is substantially of a quadrilateral shape and formed in one part of the case 10. The evaporation portion 20 has a first chamber room A1 in the chamber A.
The condensation portion 30 of the embodiment is substantially of a quadrilateral shape and formed in another part of the case 10. The condensation portion 30 has a second chamber room A2 in the chamber A. A cross-sectional width W2 of the second chamber room A2 is less than a cross-sectional width W1 of the first chamber room A1. A baseline BL is defined through the evaporation portion 20 and the condensation portion 30. The baseline BL is a connecting line of centers of the first chamber room A1 and the second chamber room A2. The cross-sectional widths W1, W2 are separately perpendicular to the baseline BL.
The transmission portion 40 of the embodiment is of a trapezoidal shape and formed in the case 10 and between the evaporation portion 20 and the condensation portion 30. The transmission portion 40 has a passage A3 in the chamber A. The passage A3 communicates with the first chamber room A1 and the second chamber room A2. The baseline BL also passes the center of the passage A3. The baseline BL may be a straight line or a type with partial curves as shown in FIG. 6 . The passage A3 has a first end A31 and a second end A32. The first end A31 is arranged adjacent to an edge of the evaporation portion 20. The second end A32 is arranged adjacent to an edge of the condensation portion 30. A width of the first end A31 is greater than a width of the second end A32.
The working fluid 50 is disposed in the chamber A. The working fluid 50 is a liquid which may generate gas-liquid phase transition, such as pure water, etc.
Furthermore, the vapor chamber 1 of the disclosure includes a wick structure 60 laid on an inner surface of the bottom plate 111 of the lower shell 11. The wick structure 60 may be woven mesh, sintered metal powder or fiber bundles for transmitting the liquid working fluid 50 by capillary adsorption.
Furthermore, the vapor chamber 1 of the disclosure includes multiple partitions 70. Each partition 70 is radially arranged in the passage A3. An interval width of any adjacent two of the partitions 70 at the first end A31 is greater than an interval width of any adjacent two of the partitions 70 at the second end A32 so as to make the evaporated working fluid 50 be smoothly guided to enter the first end A31.
Please refer to FIGS. 4 and 5 . When the vapor chamber 1 of the disclosure is applied to a heat dissipation device, the evaporation portion 20 is correspondingly attached on a heat source 8. An outer surface of the condensation portion 30 is provided with multiple cooling fins (heat dissipation sheets) 9. The heat generated from the heat source 8 after operation is transferred to the evaporation portion 20 by conduction, the liquid working fluid 50 in the evaporation portion 20 absorbs the heat to evaporate and changes to gaseous working fluid 50. The evaporated working fluid 50 carries a large amount of heat to pass the passage A3 and flows toward the condensation portion 30. By the heat dissipation action of the cooling fins 9 to the condensation portion 30, the condensation portion 30 stays at a lower temperature. When the evaporated working fluid 50 reaches the condensation portion 30, the evaporated working fluid 50 is condensed to the liquid working fluid 50. The liquid working fluid 50 is subject to the capillary suction of the wick structure 60 to flow along the passage A3 to return to the evaporation portion 20. The heat dissipation to the heat source 8 is accomplished by the continuously circular operation.
Further, by the arrangement of the passage A3 and the partitions 70 (according to the relation of Q=AV, wherein Q: flow rate, A: cross-sectional area and V: flow speed), the flow speed is inversely proportional to the cross-sectional area, and a width of the first end A31 is greater than a width of the second end A32. In comparison with a passage with a straight cylindrical shape, the evaporated working fluid 50 may pass the passage A3 with a slower speed so as to reduce the interference and block to the returning liquid working fluid 50. That may avoid dry-out of the vapor chamber 1.
Please refer to FIG. 6 . The vapor chamber 1A of the embodiment may implement a non-geometrical integration design such as FIG. 6 for multiple adjacent heat sources 8 or the using space of surroundings of the heat source 8 being restricted. The embodiment includes an evaporation portion 20, two condensation portions 30 and two transmission portions 40. A cross-sectional width W2 of the second chamber room A2 of each condensation portion 30 is less than a cross-sectional width W1 of the first chamber room A1 of the evaporation portion 20. Each transmission portion 40 is formed between the evaporation portion 20 and each condensation portion 30. Each passage A3 communicates with the first chamber room A1 and each second chamber room A2. In addition, each condensation portion 30 is provided with multiple cooling fins 9.
Please refer to FIG. 7 . The vapor chamber 1B of the embodiment differs from the above embodiments by the arrangement of the partitions 70. Each partition 70 may be arranged equidistantly in the passage A3.
While this disclosure has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this disclosure set forth in the claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A vapor chamber comprising:

a case, comprising a chamber;

an evaporation portion, disposed in one part of the case, and comprising a first chamber room in the chamber;

a condensation portion, disposed in another part of the case and located on one side the evaporation portion, comprising a second chamber room in the chamber, and a cross-sectional width of the second chamber room being less than a cross-sectional width of the first chamber room;

a transmission portion, disposed in the case and between the evaporation portion and the condensation portion, comprising a passage communicating with the first chamber room and the second chamber room in the chamber, the passage comprising a first end adjacent to the evaporation portion and a second end adjacent to the condensation portion, and a width of the first end being greater than a width of the second end; and

a working fluid, disposed in the chamber.

2. The vapor chamber of claim 1, further comprising a wick structure, wherein the case comprises a lower shell, the lower shell comprises a bottom plate, and the wick structure is laid on the bottom plate.

3. The vapor chamber of claim 2, further comprising multiple partitions, wherein each partition is arranged in the passage and located over the wick structure.

4. The vapor chamber of claim 3, wherein each partition is radially arranged or equidistantly arranged.

5. The vapor chamber of claim 1, further comprising multiple partitions, wherein each partition is arranged in the passage.

6. The vapor chamber of claim 1, wherein a baseline is defined through the evaporation portion and the condensation portion, the baseline is a connecting line of centers of the first chamber room and the second chamber room and passes center of the passage, and the cross-sectional width of the first chamber room and the cross-sectional width of the second chamber room are separately perpendicular to the baseline.

7. The vapor chamber of claim 1, wherein the transmission portion is of a trapezoidal shape.

8. The vapor chamber of claim 1, further comprising an another condensation portion and an another transmission portion, wherein the another condensation portion is disposed on another side of the evaporation portion, and the another transmission portion is disposed between the evaporation portion and the another condensation portion.

9. The vapor chamber of claim 8, wherein the another condensation portion comprises an another second chamber room in the chamber, and a cross-sectional width of the another second chamber room is less than the cross-sectional width of the first chamber room.

10. The vapor chamber of claim 9, wherein the another transmission portion comprises an another passage communicating with the first chamber room and the another second chamber room, the another passage comprises an another first end adjacent to the evaporation portion and an another second end adjacent to the another condensation portion, and a width of the another first end is greater than a width of the another second end.