Patent Publication Number: US-2005118017-A1

Title: [fan module]

Description:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to a fan module. More particularly, the present invention relates to a fan module installed inside an electronic device for moving hot air from the interior of the electronic device to the exterior.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      With great advance in computer technology, the operating speed of computers has been increased constantly so that the total amount of heat generated by electronic devices within the computer host also increases correspondingly. To prevent the internal electronic devices from temporary or permanent damage due to over-heating, an efficient cooling system must be installed inside the computer. Aside from adding a heat-dissipating system to the power supply, the central processing unit (CPU), the graphic processing unit (GPU) and the chipset of a computer to lower the operating temperature of various electronic devices, a fan module is often installed inside the host computer. The fan module increases the heat-convention from the interior of the host computer to the exterior so that the host computer can operate smoothly. Because the space within a notebook computer is quite limited, the heat generated by various electronic devices is quickly accumulated in the air inside the computer. To dissipate the heat, a notebook computer has a fan module installed inside the host computer to carry hot air away from the interior.  
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a conventional fan module. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the fan module  100  is commonly installed inside a notebook computer. The fan module  100  comprises a housing  110  and a fan  120 . The housing  110  has a mounting space  112 , an air inlet  114  and a corresponding air outlet  116 . The mounting space  112  links the air inlet  114  to the air outlet  116 . When the fan  120  of the fan module  100  is in operation, air enter from the air inlet  114  and exhaust through the air outlet  116  of the housing  100 . Therefore, the fan module  100  can extract hot air from the interior of the notebook computer to the exterior so that the host computer can operate smoothly.  
      In the conventional fan module  100 , the air outlet  116  has no mesh grating for blocking material objects. Thus, when the fan module  100  is installed inside a notebook computer and carried around, small conductive objects (such as clip pins or stapler pins) having a maximum cross-dimension smaller than the air inlet  114  and the air outlet  116  can easily get into the interior of the computer via the air outlet  116 , the mounting space  112  and the air inlet  114  of the housing  110 . If the small conductive object happens to contact any electrical contacts or circuits inside the notebook computer by accident, a short circuit may occur leading to a mal-function. At present, the safety specification stipulates that the maximum width of any slot opening on the surface of a portable device but linked to the interior of the portable device must not exceed 1 mm.  
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
      Accordingly, at least one objective of the present invention is to provide a fan module installed inside a portable device for extracting hot air from the interior of the portable device to the exterior.  
      To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the invention provides a fan module. The fan module comprises a housing, a fan and a plurality of fins. The housing further has a mounting space, an air inlet and a corresponding air outlet. The mounting space links the air inlet to the air outlet. The fan is installed within the mounting space. The fins are aligned in parallel and fitted inside the air outlet so that the fins divide the air outlet into a plurality of slots each having a width less than or equal to 1 mm.  
      According to the embodiment of present invention, each of the slots has a width between 0.8 mm and 1 mm.  
      According to the embodiment of present invention, the longitudinal direction of the air outlet is parallel to the direction of alignment of the fins. In other words, the longitudinal direction of the air outlet is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the fins.  
      According to the embodiment of present invention, the longitudinal direction of the air outlet is perpendicular to the direction of alignment of the fins. In other words, the longitudinal direction of the air outlet is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the fins.  
      In brief, the fan module of present invention utilizes a series of parallel aligned fins to divide the air outlet of a housing into a plurality of slots each having a width smaller than or equal to 1 mm. The fan module cools the interior by carrying hot air inside the portable device to the exterior and the parallel-aligned fins on the air outlet of the fan module prevents the entrance of small conductive objects into the portable device via the air outlet of the housing. In other words, the fins at the air outlet of the fan module are designed to meet the safety specification related to the dimension of openings on the surface of a portable device.  
      It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
      The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.  
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a conventional fan module.  
       FIG. 2A  is a perspective view of an assembled fan module according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 2B  is a perspective view showing various components of a fan module according to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 3A  is a perspective view of an assembled fan module according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 3B  is a perspective view showing various components of a fan module according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
      Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.  
       FIG. 2A  is a perspective view of an assembled fan module according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 2B  is a perspective view showing various components of a fan module according to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to  FIG. 2A  and  FIG. 2B , the fan module  201  according to the first embodiment comprises a housing  210 , a fan  220  and a plurality of fins  230 . The housing  210  has a mounting space  212 , an air inlet  214  and a corresponding air outlet  216 . The mounting space  212  links the air inlet  214  to the air outlet  216 . Furthermore, the housing  210  further comprises a cover plate  210   a  and a base plate  210   b.  The air inlet  214  is a bored hole in the cover plate  210   a.  A portion of the sidewall of the cover plate  210   a  and a portion of the sidewall of the base plate  210   b  form the air outlet  216  in integral. The fins  230  are attached to the bottom surface of the cover plate  210   a.  In addition, the fan  220  is installed inside the mounting space  212 . When the fan  220  rotates, air is drawn from the air inlet  214  into the mounting space  212  and then passed out through the air outlet  216 . In general, the fan module  201  is installed within a portable device (such as a portable computer), and the air outlet  216  of the fan module  201  is exposed at the surface of the portable device. With this arrangement, hot air within portable device can be carried to the exterior through the fan module  201 .  
      To meet the safety specification of a portable device, the fins  230  are aligned in parallel and fitted inside the air outlet  216  so that the air outlet  216  is divided into a plurality of slots  216   a.  Furthermore, by adjusting the pitch between these fins  230 , the slots  216   a  are set to a width smaller than or equal to 1 mm to meet the safety specifications of a portable device. It should be noted that the width of the slots  216   a  in the first embodiment is preferably set to a value between 0.8 mm and 1 mm. The fins  230  are aligned in a direction (the Y-axis in  FIG. 2A ) parallel to the longitudinal direction of the air outlet  216  (the Y-axis in  FIG. 2A ). It means that the longitudinal direction (the Z-axis in  FIG. 2A ) of the fins  230  is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction (the Y-axis in  FIG. 2A ) of the air outlet  216 .  
      When a portable device with the fan module  201  according to the first embodiment is carried out, small external conductive objects (for example, clip pins or stapler pins) is prevented from getting into the interior of the portable device through the air outlet  216  by the fins  230 . In other words, if the air outlet  216  of the fan module  201  is exposed at a surface of the portable device, the fins  230  on the air outlet  216  are an effective means of preventing small conductive objects from getting into the interior of the portable device.  
       FIG. 3A  is a perspective view of an assembled fan module according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 3B  is a perspective view showing various components of a fan module according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to  FIG. 3A  and  FIG. 3B , the second embodiment of present invention has a fan module  202  similar to the fan module  201  in the first embodiment. The fan module  202  has a housing  210 , a fan  220  and a plurality of fins  230 . The fins  230  are aligned in a direction (the Z-axis in  FIG. 3A ) roughly perpendicular to the longitudinal direction (the Y-axis in  FIG. 3A ) of the air outlet  216 . It means that the longitudinal direction (the Y-axis in  FIG. 3A ) of the fins  230  is roughly parallel to the longitudinal direction (the Y-axis in  FIG. 3A ) of the air outlet  216 . It should be noted that the total area of the slots  216   a  in the second embodiment which the longitudinal direction of the fins  230  (the Y-axis in  FIG. 3A ) is parallel to the longitudinal direction (the Y-axis in  FIG. 3A ) of the air outlet  216  is greater than the total area of the slots  216   a  in the first embodiment. In other words, besides meeting the safety specifications of a portable device (that is, width of any opening must be smaller than or equal to 1 mm), the fan module  202  in the second embodiment also provides a larger open area for the passage of air (relative to the fan module in the first embodiment).  
      In summary, the fan module of present invention utilizes a plurality of parallel-aligned fins to divide the air outlet into a plurality of slots with each slot having a width smaller than or equal to 1 mm. The fan module cools the interior by carrying hot air inside the portable device to the exterior and the parallel-aligned fins on the air outlet of the fan module prevents the entrance of small conductive objects into the portable device via the air outlet of the housing. Furthermore, the slots at the air outlet of the fan module are designed to meet the safety specification related to the portable device. In addition, the fan module of present invention can be applied to systems other than a notebook computer such as a tablet computer or other portable device.  
      It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.