JP2001221529A - Cooling system and electronic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To cool the heat generating part of an electronic apparatus efficiently with small power. SOLUTION: The cooling system comprises a plurality of cylinders 11, 12, 13, 14 each having one end part being transmitted with heat from a specified heat generating part and the other end part proximate to a heat dissipating part, slide members 21, 22, 23, 24 disposed, movably between one and the other end parts, in the plurality of cylinders and fixed with a hydrogen occlusion member, and a plurality of connecting members 31, 33, 35, 37 for connecting one end part of each cylinder sequentially with the other end of other cylinder such that they can communicate each other with heat regenerating means 32, 34, 36, 38 being disposed in the way, wherein the slide member reciprocates in the cylinder with heat generated from the heat generating part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cooling device suitable for cooling a member such as a microprocessor incorporated in, for example, a personal computer, and an electronic apparatus provided with the cooling device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a microprocessor included in a personal computer device or the like generates a large amount of heat during operation, and is generally provided with some type of cooling device. For example, there is a configuration in which a fan rotated by a motor is arranged near a microprocessor, and the rotation of the fan discharges air near the microprocessor to the outside of the computer device to cool the microprocessor. is there.

[0003]

However, a cooling device using such a fan requires electric power to rotate the fan, and has a problem that the power consumption of the computer device is increased. In addition, a relatively large fan is required to obtain a certain cooling effect, and there is a problem that a certain amount of noise is generated as the fan rotates. Further, it is necessary to discharge the air having cooled the microprocessor to the outside of the device, and there is a problem that the heat of the discharged air raises the temperature of the room where the computer device is installed.

Further, since the conventional cooling device has a configuration in which a fan is forcibly rotated by using, for example, a motor to generate an air flow, during cooling operation, the fan is required to drive the fan. There was a problem that constant power was required.

[0005] Although a microprocessor of a computer device has been described here as an example, various electronic devices that generate heat during operation of the device have similar problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to efficiently cool a heat generating portion provided in an electronic device with a small amount of power.

[0007]

According to the cooling device of the present invention, heat from a predetermined heat generating portion is transmitted to one end, and the other end is disposed in a plurality of cylinders close to the heat radiating portion and in the plurality of cylinders. And a slide member that is freely movable between one end and the other end, and on which a hydrogen storage member is attached, and one end of each cylinder and the other end of another cylinder are sequentially connected in a conductive manner. , A plurality of connecting members in which a heat regenerating means is arranged in the middle.

According to the cooling device of the present invention, one end of each cylinder is heated by the heat generated by the heat generating portion, so that the hydrogen absorbing member attached to the slide member in each cylinder is heated, and the hydrogen absorbing member is heated. Hydrogen absorbed and stored by the member is released to one end of the cylinder. Due to this release of hydrogen, the pressure between the slide member in the cylinder and one end increases, and the slide member is pushed to the other end and moved by the pressure. When the slide member moves to the other end, the slide member is cooled by the heat radiation by the heat dissipating portion close to the other end, and absorbs hydrogen in the cylinder. The pressure between the parts decreases, and the slide member moves to return to the original position. This reciprocation of the slide member is repeated as long as the cooling operation is performed.

The electronic device according to the present invention includes a heat generating member that generates heat by operation of the device, a plurality of cylinders transmitting heat from the heat generating member to one end, and a heat radiating means for discharging heat transmitted to the other end of the plurality of cylinders. And a slide member arranged in a plurality of cylinders, freely movable between one end and the other end, and having a hydrogen storage member attached thereto, and one end of each cylinder and the other end of another cylinder And a plurality of connecting members which are connected in order so as to be able to conduct, and a heat regenerating means is arranged on the way.

According to the electronic apparatus of the present invention, when the apparatus is operated and the heat generating member generates heat, one end side in each cylinder is heated, and the hydrogen storage member attached to the slide member in each cylinder is heated. Thus, the hydrogen absorbed and stored by the hydrogen storage member is released to one end side in the cylinder. Due to this release of hydrogen, the pressure between the slide member in the cylinder and one end increases, and the slide member is pushed to the other end and moved by the pressure. Then, when the slide member moves to the other end, the slide member is cooled by heat radiation by the heat radiating portion near the other end,
Hydrogen in the cylinder is absorbed, the pressure between the slide member and one end in the cylinder decreases, and the slide member moves back to its original position. This reciprocation of the slide member is repeated as long as the cooling operation is performed.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
This will be described with reference to FIGS.

In the present embodiment, the electronic device is provided with a heating element inside. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, for example, an example in which the present invention is applied to a so-called desktop personal computer device 1 as an electronic device is shown. The personal computer device 1 includes a main body 2, a display 3, and a keyboard 4, and a microprocessor 6 is disposed at a predetermined position on a circuit board 5 in the main body 2.

The microprocessor 6 is one of semiconductor elements for executing necessary arithmetic processing in the personal computer 1 when the personal computer 1 is operated. The microprocessor 6 includes a heating element that generates heat at a relatively high temperature during operation. Become. Here, in this example, a cooling unit 10 is provided around the microprocessor 6.
The heat radiating plate 7 is arranged to cool the microprocessor 6. Specifically, for example, the cooling unit 10 is mounted on the microprocessor 6, and the radiator plate 7 is further mounted on the cooling unit 10. The heat radiating plate 7 has a shape in which a metal member having high thermal conductivity such as an aluminum plate is brought into contact with air over a wide area. And the cooling part 10 of this example is a mechanism which performs a cooling operation using the characteristic of a hydrogen storage alloy.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a cooling unit 10 arranged on a microprocessor 6 on a circuit board. The cooling unit 10 of the present example has four cylinders 11, 12, 13, 14
It consists of. On the microprocessor 6, this 4
The two cylinders 11, 12, 13, 14 are arranged in a square and arranged upright. In the following description, the end on the microprocessor 6 side of each of the cylinders 11 to 14 is referred to as one end, and the opposite end (the side on which the heat radiating plate 7 is disposed) is referred to as the other end.

A slider is arranged inside each of the cylinders 11 to 14 so as to be freely movable between one end and the other end. This slider will be described later. Each of the cylinders 11 to 14 has a pipe-shaped connecting portion 3.
They are interconnected via 1, 33, 35, 37. That is, one end of the first cylinder 11 is connected to the other end of the second cylinder 12 via the connection part 31, and one end of the second cylinder 12 is connected to the other end via the connection part 33. The third cylinder 13 is connected to the other end of the third cylinder 13.
3 is connected to the fourth cylinder 14 via the connecting portion 35.
, And one end of the fourth cylinder 14 is connected to the other end of the first cylinder 11 via a connection portion 37. Heat regeneration exchangers 32, 34, 36, and 38 are arranged in the middle of each of the connection parts 31, 33, 35, and 37.

The respective heat regeneration exchangers 32, 34, 3
Reference numerals 6 and 38 denote a state in which a fluid (gas) can freely move between one end and the other end of the connected pipe while heat transfer is reduced. Heat regeneration exchanger 32,
Specific examples of the configuration of 34, 36, and 38 include, for example, a configuration in which a mesh-like metal is disposed inside, and a configuration in which a sponge-like resin is filled. An appropriate configuration may be selected depending on the characteristics of the fluid filled in the pipe.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the inside of the four cylinders 11 to 14 in a developed state. First cylinder 11
A slider 21, which is a slide member that can freely move between one end 11a and the other end 11b, is disposed inside the slider. The slider 21 has a hydrogen storage alloy portion 21a
Is installed. The hydrogen storage alloy portion 21a is made of an alloy having a property of absorbing hydrogen in a gas at a temperature near normal temperature and releasing the absorbed hydrogen into the gas when heated. Specifically, for example, it is composed of a combination of a metal that absorbs hydrogen and a metal that activates, and hydrogen molecules are captured in the gaps of the activated metal lattice. The amount of hydrogen that the hydrogen storage alloy portion 21a can store depends on the temperature. Various compositions of this hydrogen storage alloy have been developed, and for example, nickel alloys are known.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the shape of the slider 21. The disk-shaped slider 21 disposed in the cylindrical cylinder 11 is configured to hold a particulate hydrogen storage alloy 21a on a lattice-shaped frame member 21b formed of a metal such as nickel. Although a specific mechanism for holding the particulate hydrogen storage alloy 21a is not shown, it is preferable to hold the hydrogen storage alloy 21a so that it can efficiently contact the gas in the cylinder.

The second, third, and fourth cylinders 12, 13,
14, the sliders 22, 23, 2 having the same shape
A slider 4 is disposed so as to be freely movable between one end and the other end, and hydrogen storage alloy portions 22a, 23a, 24a are attached to the respective sliders 22, 23, 24.

When each of the sliders 21 to 24 is moved to the one end 11a, 12a, 13a, 14a side in each cylinder, the protrusion 11 of the member that covers the cylinder at one end thereof.
d, 12d, 13d, and 14d, and when they move to the other ends 11b, 12b, 13b, and 14b, the protrusions 11e, 12e, and 13e of the member that covers the cylinder at the other end. , 14e. With such contact, when the slider is in contact with one end, the one end 11a, 12a of the cylinder is externally (in this case, the microprocessor 6).
The heat transmitted to a, 13a, and 14a is quickly transmitted to the slider. When the slider is in contact with the other end, the heat of the slider can be quickly transmitted to the heat radiating plate 7 arranged near the other end to radiate the heat. In FIG. 2, the slider 21 is shown in a position where the slider 21 is in contact with the protrusion 11 d of the one end 11 a in the first cylinder 11, and the slider 23 is in contact with the protrusion 13 d of the other end 13 b in the third cylinder 13. In the second and fourth cylinders 12, 14, the sliders 22, 24 are shown at intermediate positions.

Further, a magnetized portion is formed on a part of the outer peripheral portion of each of the sliders 21 to 24 of the present embodiment. When the slider moves in the cylinder, the magnetized portion is formed on the cylinder. As shown in FIG. 2,
The coils 11c, 12c, 13c, 14c are arranged. Then, a power supply circuit (not shown) included in the device of the present embodiment can extract a voltage signal obtained in the coils 11c, 12c, 13c, and 14c by a magnetic field change when the slider moves.

Next, the cooling operation of the cooling unit 10 thus configured will be described with reference to FIG. Here, the sliders 21 to 24 in each cylinder and one end portions 11a to 14a
And the pressure in the space between the sliders 21 to 24 and the other ends 11b to 14b is Pc.

First, the microprocessor 6 located below the cooling unit 10 (although not necessarily lower depending on the positional relationship) generates heat, so that each cylinder 11
Are heated, and the sliders 21 to 24 in the cylinder are also heated. When the sliders 21 to 24 are heated, each slider 21
To hydrogen storage alloy parts 21a, 22a,
The hydrogen occluded by 23a and 24a is released to a space near one end in each cylinder.

By releasing hydrogen in the cylinder in this way, each slider 21 to 24 and one end 11a to 14a
Is higher than the pressure Pc on the opposite side of the cylinder. As a result, each of the sliders 21 to 21
24 moves so as to be pushed to the other end portions 11b to 14b. This movement causes each of the sliders 21 to 24 to move.
Is brought into contact with the protrusions 11e to 14e on the other end portions 11b to 14b side, the heat of the sliders 21 to 24 is taken by the radiator plate 7 connected to the other end portions 11b to 14b. The temperature of the sliders 21 to 24 decreases.

When the temperature of the sliders 21 to 24 drops, the hydrogen storage alloy portions 21 attached to the sliders 21 to 24
a, 22a, 23a, and 24a start absorbing hydrogen, and the pressure Ph in the cylinder between each of the sliders 21 to 24 and the one end 11a to 14a starts to decrease. Here, by setting the pressure Pc on the low temperature side (the other end side) to be the same as the pressure Ph on the high temperature side (the one end side) when the slider is moved, the pressure Ph on the one end side becomes lower than the pressure Pc. , Slider 21
-24 are attracted to the one ends 11a-14a, and the sliders 21-24 move to the one ends 11a-14a.

This is the movement of the slider in each cylinder in one cycle. This reciprocation is repeated as long as the microprocessor 6 continues to generate heat, and the heat of the microprocessor 6 is radiated to the outside from the radiator plate 7. . here,
Inside each cylinder, heat regeneration exchangers 32, 34, 36, 38
Are connected to each other by the connection portions 31, 33, 35, and 37 to which the pressure rises in one cylinder and the pressure drop in the next cylinder interlock. Sliders 21 to 2 in cylinders 11 to 14
4 is performed with a predetermined phase difference,
The sliders 21 to 24 can reciprocate satisfactorily. In particular, by adopting a configuration having four cylinders as in this example, if one reciprocating operation of the slider is 360 degrees, each slider operates with a phase difference of 90 degrees. It operates with the positional relationship of each slider as shown in FIG.

As described above, according to the cooling unit 10 attached to the electronic apparatus (personal computer apparatus 1) of the present embodiment, the heat generated by the internal heating element (microprocessor) is discharged to the outside of the apparatus to perform cooling. be able to. In particular, when the heat-generating portion is concentrated at a specific one place (or several places), such as a microprocessor of a personal computer device as in this example, efficient cooling can be performed, and this kind of small-sized electronic equipment can be used. It is suitable. Further, the only operation sound during cooling is the sound of the slider reciprocating in the cooling section, which is a closed space, and is much quieter than when cooling is performed by a fan device or the like.

In this embodiment, each of the cylinders 11 to 11
The voltage signals generated in the coils 11c to 14c are taken out as electric power in accordance with the movement of the sliders 21 to 24 in the motor 14, so that the electric power is generated in accordance with the cooling operation. Can be obtained. In this case, it is conceivable that the obtained power is used to charge a secondary battery connected to a power supply circuit, for example, or is used directly as power for operating the computer device 1. By effectively utilizing the power thus generated, there is an effect that the power consumption of the device can be reduced as a result.

In the above-described embodiment, four cylinders are arranged and connected to each other as the cylinders constituting the cooling unit. However, if the same cooling operation is possible, other cylinders may be used. May be constituted by the cylinder. Also, as means for extracting electric power from the reciprocating movement of the slider,
In the above embodiment, the coil attached to the cylinder is used, but other means may be used. For example, from a reciprocating motion of the slider, a torque may be obtained by using some kind of link mechanism or the like, and the generator may be driven by the torque.

In the above-described embodiment, only the cooling section of the present embodiment is arranged as a cooling mechanism inside the device, but it may be combined with another cooling mechanism. For example, while cooling the entire inside of the apparatus with a cooling fan, the cooling section of the present embodiment may intensively cool a portion having a particularly high heat generation temperature. In this case, the power generated by the cooling unit may be used as a power supply for driving the fan.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, an example has been described in which a cooling device for a microprocessor in a desktop personal computer device is used. However, a computer device of another shape such as a portable personal computer device such as a notebook computer is described. If it is a device that generates heat at a particular location in the device,
Of course, it can also be used as a cooling device in various other electronic devices other than the computer device.

[0032]

According to the cooling device of the present invention, the heating and cooling of the slide member in the cylinder repeatedly releases and absorbs hydrogen from the hydrogen storage member attached to the slide member, thereby increasing the pressure in the cylinder. The slide member repeats the reciprocating motion in the cylinder, and the heat generating portion can be efficiently cooled by the reciprocating motion of the slide member in the cylinder.

In this case, by providing the power generating means for obtaining the electric power with the reciprocating movement of the slide member, the device functions as a power generating device using the heat generating portion as a heat source.

Further, according to the electronic apparatus of the present invention, the heating and cooling of the slide member in the cylinder repeatedly releases and absorbs hydrogen from the hydrogen storage member attached to the slide member, thereby increasing the pressure in the cylinder and increasing the pressure. The decline is repeated,
The slide member repeats reciprocating motion in the cylinder, and the heat generating member in the device can be efficiently cooled by the reciprocating motion of the slide member in the cylinder.

In this case, by providing the power generation means for obtaining electric power with the reciprocating movement of the slide member, it is possible to generate electric power by the heat generated by the operation of the equipment, and to use the obtained electric power as the power supply for operating the equipment. By making it a part or by charging a secondary battery incorporated in the device, it becomes possible to convert heat generated due to the operation of the device into electric power and use it effectively.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of a cooling unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded cross-sectional view showing the inside of a cooling unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of a slider according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of an electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, with a part thereof cut away.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Personal computer device, 5. Circuit board, 6.
Microprocessor, 7: heat sink, 10: cooling unit, 11
... first cylinder, 12 ... second cylinder, 13 ... third
, The fourth cylinder, 11c, 12c,
13c, 14c: coil, 21, 22, 23, 24: slider, 21a, 22a, 23a, 24a: hydrogen storage alloy part, 31, 33, 35, 37 ... connection part, 32, 34,
36, 38 ... heat regeneration exchanger

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A method according to claim 1, wherein heat from a predetermined heat generating portion is transmitted to one end portion, and the other end portion is disposed in the plurality of cylinders adjacent to the heat radiating portion. Between the cylinder and the other end of another cylinder are connected in order to allow conduction, and a heat regenerating means is arranged in the middle of the slide member. A cooling device comprising: a plurality of connecting members; 2. The cooling device according to claim 1, wherein the hydrogen storage member attached to the slide member releases the stored hydrogen when heated by heat transmitted from the heat generating portion to one end of the cylinder. A cooling device having a characteristic of absorbing hydrogen in a gas when the heat transmitted from the other end is radiated. 3. The cooling device according to claim 1, further comprising: a power generation unit that obtains electric power with movement of the slide unit in the cylinder. 4. A heat generating member that generates heat by operation of an apparatus, a plurality of cylinders to which heat from the heat generating member is transmitted to one end, a radiator for discharging heat transferred to the other end of the plurality of cylinders, A slide member disposed in a plurality of cylinders, freely movable between one end and the other end, and having a hydrogen storage member attached thereto; one end of each of the cylinders and the other end of another cylinder An electronic device comprising: a plurality of connection members that are connected in a conductive manner in order and a heat regenerating unit is arranged in the middle of the connection. 5. The electronic device according to claim 4, wherein the hydrogen storage member attached to the slide member releases the stored hydrogen when heated by heat transmitted from the heat generating portion to one end of the cylinder. An electronic device which is a member having a characteristic of absorbing hydrogen in a gas when the transmitted heat is radiated at the other end. 6. The electronic device according to claim 4, further comprising: a power generation unit that obtains electric power with movement of the slide unit in the cylinder.