Abstract:
A heat conducting structure, a heat sink with the heat conducting structure, and a manufacturing method of the heat conducting structure are disclosed. The manufacturing method includes the steps of providing a first mold ( 20 ) and a second mold ( 30 ) having different concave cambers ( 211, 211   a,    221, 221   a ), using the first mold ( 20 ) to progressively compress the heat pipes ( 10 ) and form a camber ( 112 ) at an evaporating section ( 11 ), using the second mold ( 30 ) to compress the camber ( 112 ) to form a contact plane ( 112′ ) and an attaching plane ( 113′ ) perpendicular to each other, coating an adhesive ( 50 ) on the contact planes ( 112′ ), connecting the contact planes to make the attaching planes co-planar.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCES RELATED TO THE APPLICATION 
     This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/562,352 filed on Sep. 18, 2009. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a heat conducting structure, and more particularly to a heat conducting structure having a heat pipe, and a manufacturing method of the heat conducting structure. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     In general, an electronic component generates heat during its operation. As science and technology advance, the functions and performance of electronic products are enhanced, and the heat generated by the electronic products becomes increasingly larger, so that most electronic components need a heat dissipating device for controlling a working temperature to maintain normal operations of electronic components. For example, a heat pipe filled with a working fluid for conducting heat is one of the common heat conducting devices. 
     With reference to  FIG. 1  for a conventional heat sink, the heat conducting structure  1   a  of the heat sink  10  comprises a heat conducting base  10   a  and a plurality of heat pipes  20   a , wherein the heat conducting base  10   a  includes a plurality of ditches  11   a  disposed thereon, and the heat pipes  20   a  are substantially U-shaped and embedded into the ditches  11   a . In addition, a plurality of fins  30   a  having through holes are sheathed onto the heat pipe  20   a , such that the heat conducting base  10   a  is attached onto a heat-generating electronic component, and the heat sink  1   a  can dissipate the heat produced by the heat-generating electronic component. 
     In the aforementioned structure, the heat pipes  20   a  are embedded into the heat conducting base  10   a  to facilitate attaching the heat pipes  20   a  and combining the heat generating electronic component. However, the heat conducting base  20   a  not just increases the overall weight of the heat sink  1   a  only, but also extends the heat conduction path and retards the heat dissipation rate. Furthermore, the installation of the heat conducting base  20   a  also incurs a higher manufacturing cost of the heat sink  1   a.    
     In view of the aforementioned shortcomings of the related art, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience in the related industry to conduct extensive researches and experiments, and finally provided a feasible solution in accordance with the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the related art. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion capable of reducing its overall weight and heat conduction path to lower the manufacturing cost of a heat sink and enhance the heat dissipating efficiency of the heat sink. 
     To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion, comprising a plurality of heat pipes and an adhesive, wherein each heat pipe includes an evaporating section, a contact plane formed at the evaporating section, and an attaching plane formed adjacent to the contact plane, and the heat pipes are arranged adjacent with each other in a row by the contact plane, and the adhesive is coated onto and combined with the contact plane of any two adjacent heat pipes, and a flush and co-planar heated portion is formed at each attaching plane of the heat pipes. 
     To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides a heat sink with a heat conducting structure, comprising an adhesive, a plurality of heat pipes and a plurality of fins, wherein each heat pipe includes an evaporating section and a condensing section, and a contact plane and an attaching plane adjacent to the contact plane are formed on the evaporating section, and the heat pipes are arranged in parallel with each other and disposed adjacent to the contact plane, and the adhesive is coated and coupled to the contact plane of any two adjacent heat pipes, and each attaching plane of the heat pipes has a flush and co-planar heated portion, and a plurality of fins are arranged parallel to each other in a row and passed through the condensing section of the heat pipes. 
     Compared with the related art, the present invention has the evaporating section formed and coupled onto the heat pipe and the contact surface coated with the adhesive, such that after the adhesive is combined with the evaporating section of the heat pipe, the heat conducting structure with a flush and co-planar heated portion is formed. Unlike the related art that embeds the heat pipe into the heat sink of the heat conducting base, the heat conduction of the heat sink in accordance with the invention no longer requires any heat conducting base, and thus the invention can reduce the heat conduction path and improve the heat conduction rate. In addition, no heat conducting base is required, and thus the overall weight and manufacturing cost of the heat sink can be reduced significantly to improve the practicability and cost-effectiveness of the present invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows a conventional heat pipe heat sink; 
         FIG. 2  is a flow chart of manufacturing a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic view showing a press module of a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional view of  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic view of compressing a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 5A  is a partial enlarged view of a portion A of  FIG. 5 ; 
         FIG. 5B  is a schematic view of compressing a concave camber compression; 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic view of compressing a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 6A  is a partial enlarged view of a portion A of  FIG. 6 ; 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic view of compressing a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 7A  is a partial enlarged view of a portion A of  FIG. 7 ; 
         FIG. 8  is a schematic view of installing a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 9  is a schematic view of securing a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 10  is a cross-sectional view of securing a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 11  is a cross-sectional view of a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention; and 
         FIG. 12  is a perspective view of a heat sink of a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The technical characteristics, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings are provided for reference and illustration only, but not intended for limiting the present invention. 
     With reference to  FIGS. 2 to 8  for flow charts and schematic views of manufacturing a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention, a plurality of heat pipes  10 , a first mold  20  and a second mold  30  are provided first (Step  100 ). The heat pipe  10  is U-shaped and includes an evaporating section  11  and two condensing sections  12 , and the first mold  20  includes a first platform  21  and a first compression rod  22 , wherein the first platform  21  of the first mold  20  can have different concave cambers  211 ,  211   a , or a plurality of first molds  20  are used, and the different concave cambers  211 ,  211   a  are formed on the first molds  20  respectively (as show in  FIGS. 5A and 5B ), and the first compression rod  22  can have a concave camber  221 . The second mold  30  includes a second platform  31  and a second compression rod  32 , and surfaces of the second platform  31  and the second compression rod  32  are provided with planar surfaces  311 ,  321 . 
     With reference to  FIGS. 3 to 5  and  5 A, the heat pipe  10  is placed onto the first platform  21 , and the first mold  20  is used for performing a progressive compression to the evaporating section  11  of the heat pipe  10  (Step  200 ) to progressively form the required camber on the evaporating section  11 . In this preferred embodiment, the first mold  20  includes two sets of corresponding concave cambers, such that after the first mold  20  is compressed, the first compression rod  22  and the concave cambers  221 ,  211  of the first platform  21  perform a compression procedure to the evaporating section  11  of the heat pipe  10  to form adjacent cambers  111 ˜ 114  on the evaporating section  11 , and then other concave cambers  221   a ,  211   a  are used for performing the compression procedure to the cambers  111 ˜ 114 . If the first compression rod  22  has not compressed the evaporating section  11  of the heat pipe  10 , then the evaporating section  11  only has the cambers  111 ˜ 113  formed thereon. 
     With reference to  FIGS. 6 ,  6 A,  7  and  7 A, the heat pipe  10  compressed progressively by the first mold  20  is placed onto the second platform  31  in the second mold  30 , and the second mold  30  is used for compressing the cambers  111 ˜ 114  of the evaporating section  11  of the heat pipe  10  (Step  300 ), wherein a contact surface of the second platform  31  of the second mold  30  and the evaporating section  11  is a planar surface  311 , and a contact surface of the second compression rod  32  and the evaporating section  11  of the heat pipe  10  is also a planar surface  321 . In this preferred embodiment, the second mold  30  includes two sets of opposite planar surfaces, such that after the second mold  30  is compressed, the planar surfaces  321 ,  311  of the second compression rod  32  and the second platform  31  can be used for compressing the evaporating section  11  of the heat pipe  10 , and the cambers  111 ˜ 114  form two sets of planes perpendicular to each other, and the compressed evaporating section  11 ′ having a rectangular cross-section includes two contact planes  112 ′,  114 ′ and two attaching planes  111 ′,  113 ′ perpendicular to the two contact planes  112 ′,  114 ′. If the second mold  30  just compresses the cambers  111 ˜ 113 , the evaporating section  11 ′ of the heat pipe  10  has a cross-section substantially in the shape of D. 
     After the evaporating section  11  of the heat pipe  10  is compressed by the first mold  20  and the second mold  30 , the required shape is achieved after the following connection. The remaining heat pipes  10  go through the same process as described above to produce a heat conducting structure with a predetermined quantity of connected heat pipes  10 . 
     With reference to  FIGS. 8 to 11  for schematic views of connecting an evaporating section of a heat pipe in accordance with the present invention, an adhesive  50  is coated onto the contact planes  112 ′,  114 ′ of any two adjacent heat pipes  10  according to the required quantity of heat pipes  10  (Step  400 ), wherein the adhesive  50  is a heat conducting adhesive. 
     Each contact plane  112 ′,  114 ′ of the heat pipes  10  is put into a tool  40  having a plurality of through holes  400 , and the evaporating section  11 ′ of the heat pipe  10  is disposed on a base  401  of the tool  40 , and the contact planes  112 ′,  114 ′ are preliminarily coupled by the adhesive  50 , and then a press board  41  and a clamp board  42  having a compression plane  411  and a clamping plane  421  are provided for compressing and positioning the evaporating section  11 ′ of the heat pipe  10  (Step  500 ), and then a C-shaped clamp  43  is used for fixing the press board  41 . After the adhesive  50  is solidified to combine the evaporating section  11 ′ of the heat pipe  10 , the heat pipes  10  can be removed from the tool  40 . 
     With reference to  FIG. 11  for a partial cross-sectional view of a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion in accordance with the present invention, after the tool  40  is positioned, the evaporating sections  11 ′ of the heat pipes  10  are arranged adjacent to each other in a row by the contact surfaces  112 ′,  114 ′, and the attaching plane  113 ′ of the evaporating section  11 ′ of the heat pipes  10  is flush to form a co-planar heated portion  1130  for attaching a heat generating electronic component (not shown in the figure). In addition, an attaching plane  113 ′ of the evaporating section  11 ′ of the heat pipes  10  is also flush and co-planar to form a holding section  1110  provided for clamping a fixing element (not shown in the figure) to be fixed onto the heat generating electronic component. 
     With reference to  FIG. 12  for a heat sink of a heat conducting structure with a coplanar heated portion, the condensing section  12  of the heat pipes  10  is installed separately and has a circular cross-section, and a plurality of fins  60  are passed and disposed onto the condensing sections  12  to form a heat sink  1 . 
     The present invention is illustrated with reference to the preferred embodiment and not intended to limit the patent scope of the present invention. Various substitutions and modifications have suggested in the foregoing description, and other will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.