Patent Publication Number: US-2005135048-A1

Title: Cooling module of computer system and related apparatus with air wall for preventing recycling of heated air

Description:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention provides a cooling module of a computer system and related apparatus, and more particularly, a cooling module with an air wall preventing heated air from being recycled.  
      2. Description of the Prior Art  
      Computers have become the most important information hardware of modern times. The higher the processing speed, the higher the temperature in a computer system (especially from heat generated by a central processing unit—CPU). Only if heat of the computer system can be effectively dissipated, can the computer system operate properly and stably. Therefore, how to increase efficiency of heat dissipation in the computer system becomes one of the most important issues for development in modern information technology.  
      Please refer to  FIG. 1 , which illustrates a prior art air-cooled cooling module  20  of a computer system  10 . Circuits of the computer system  10  are set in a motherboard  12 . The cooling module  20  is attached to a circuit  14  (such as a chip, or a CPU) of the motherboard  12  for heat dissipation. The cooling module  20  includes a fan module  16  and a heat sink module  18 . An electric fan of the fan module  16  draws air from an air inlet  22 A and exhausts air from an air outlet  22 B. The heat sink module  18  includes a plurality of radiator fins  28 , wherein above the radiator fins  28  is an air inlet  24 A, beside is an air outlet  24 B, below is the circuit  14 , and between each radiator fin  28  is an airway. The fan module  16  is located on the heat sink module  18 , so that the air inlet  24 A of the heat sink module  18  corresponds to the air outlet  22 B of the fan module  16 .  
      Operations of the cooling module  20  are as follows. In the heat sink module  18 , the radiator fins  28  absorb heat from the circuit  14 , conduct heat along the length of the fin. The fan module  16  draws air along an arrow  26 A in  FIG. 1 , and blows air through the air outlet  22 B of the fan module  16  into the air inlet  24 A of the heat sink module  18 . Then, as an arrow  26 B illustrates in  FIG. 1 , air is exhausted from the air outlet  24 B of the heat sink module  18 . Therefore, as air flows from the air inlet  24 A to the air outlet  24 B, heat is exhausted from the radiator fins  28 . With heated air exhausting from the air outlet  24 B, heat provided by the circuit  14  can be dissipated.  
      As mentioned above, in an air-cooled cooling module, the lower the temperature of air flowing into a fan module, the higher the efficiency of heat dissipation in a heat sink module. However, as an arrow  26 C in  FIG. 1  illustrates, the fan module  16  can draw in air provided by the air outlet  24 B, thereby recycling already heated air. With heated air cycling between the fan module  16  and the heat sink module  18 , heat dissipation efficiency of the cooling module  20  is decreased seriously. Moreover, in modern computer systems, the fan module  16  of the prior art cooling module  20  increases airflow with a higher rotational speed motor, resulting in the fan module  16  drawing in much more heated air from the air outlet  24 B decreasing efficiency.  
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
      It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide a cooling module with an air wall, which prevents heated air provided by a heat sink module from flowing into an air inlet of a fan module of the cooling module, so as to increase heat dissipation efficiency of the heat sink module.  
      Briefly described, a cooling module of a computer system includes: a fan module, a heat sink module, and an air wall. The fan module having an air inlet and an air outlet is capable of drawing air into the air inlet and exhausting air from the air outlet. The heat sink module includes an air inlet, an air outlet, and a heat conduction part. The heat conduction part is between the air inlet and the air outlet and connects to a circuit of the computer system. The air inlet connects to the air outlet of the fan module. Moreover, the heat sink module is capable of drawing air into the air inlet and through the heat conduction part to exhaust air from the air outlet. The air wall is located between the air inlet of the fan module and the air outlet of the heat sink module for isolating airflow from the air outlet of the heat sink module to the air inlet of the fan module, so that heated air from the air outlet of the heat sink module is prevented from flowing into the air inlet of the fan module.  
      These and other objectives of the claimed invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a perspective diagram of a prior art cooling module in a computer system.  
       FIG. 2  illustrates a perspective diagram of the present invention cooling module.  
       FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4  illustrate perspective diagrams of the cooling module in  FIG. 2  when being installed into a computer system.  
       FIG. 5  illustrates a cross-sectional view of the computer system in  FIG. 3 .  
       FIG. 6  illustrates a perspective diagram of the computer system in  FIG. 4  when adding an extra fan module.  
       FIG. 7  to  FIG. 9  illustrates different implementations of fixing the air wall to the computer system in  FIG. 2 .  
       FIG. 10  illustrates a perspective diagram of the air wall in  FIG. 2  when being set in a brace.  
       FIG. 11  and  FIG. 12  illustrate the brace with the air wall when being set into the computer system in  FIG. 10 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
      Please refer to  FIG. 2 , which illustrates a present invention cooling module  40 . The cooling module  40  includes a fan module  36 , a heat sink module  38 , and an air wall  50 . The fan module  36  includes an electric fan that draws air into an air inlet  42 A and exhausts air from an air outlet  42 B. The heat sink module  38  includes a plurality of radiator fins  48  for heat conduction; among the radiator fins  48  are an air inlet  45 A and an air outlet  45 B. The fan module  36  is disposed on the heat sink module  38  and blows air into the heat sink module  38  through the air inlet  45 A to each radiator fin  48 , heated air being exhausted from the air outlet  45 B. The cooling module  40  further includes an air wall  50  for isolating airflow from the air outlet  45 B to the air inlet  42 A, so that air from the air outlet  45 B is prevented from being recycled into the air inlet  42 A. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the air wall  50  includes an approach  52 , which matches the sizes of the air outlet  42 B and the air inlet  45 A. The air wall  50  prevents heated air provided by the heat sink module  38  from flowing into the air inlet  42 A, preventing air from being recycled into the fan module  36 .  
      Please refer to  FIG. 3  to  FIG. 5  (also  FIG. 2 ).  FIG. 3  to  FIG. 5  illustrate the heat sink module  40  installed in a computer system  30  having a case  60 . For convenience, the case  60  is not shown in  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 5  is a cross-sectional view along a line  5 - 5  of the computer system  30  in  FIG. 3 . Circuits of the computer system  30  are set on a motherboard  42  (in  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5 ), and the cooling module  40  is set onto a circuit  34 . The heat sink module  38  is attached to the circuit  34  for heat dissipation. The circuit  34  can be a system chip or a CPU of the computer system  30 . Naturally, the computer system  30  can include other support devices (or peripherals)  54 A,  54 B. The support devices  54 A and  54 B can be power supplies, storage devices, hard disks, CD-ROMs, card readers or other add-on cards. In the present invention, the air wall  50  can fit all configurations of the support devices  54 A and  54 B, so that the air wall  50  can divide the computer system  30  into a cool zone  58  and a warm zone  62  (as shown in  FIG. 5 ).  
      Moreover, the fan module  36  draws air from the cool zone  58 , and blows air into the heat sink module  38 , where heat is exchanged with the circuit  34 . Then, heated air is exhausted from the air outlet  45 B to the warm zone  62 . Being isolated by the air wall  50 , the warm zone  62  and the cool zone  58  don not have air cycling between them undesirably, so that heated air exhausted from the heat sink module  38  is prevented from flowing into the air inlet  42 A of the fan module  36 . Therefore, the present invention cooling module  40  can effectively dissipate heat. According to practical tests, the air wall  50  decreases air temperature at the air inlet  42 A by 10%, and increases heat dissipation efficiency.  
      As  FIG. 3  to  FIG. 5  illustrate, holes  56  of the case  60  corresponding to the warm zone  62  can be further included in the computer system  30 , so as to exhaust heated air from the warm zone  62  to outside of the computer system  30 . Please refer to  FIG. 6  (also  FIG. 4 ). The computer system  30  can further include a fan module  72  corresponding to the holes  56  for forcibly exhausting heated air from the warm zone  62  to outside of the case  60 .  
      In the present invention, the cool and warm zone  58  and  62  can be implemented by non-airtight configurations. That is, small spaces are allowed among the air wall  50 , the case  60 , and each support device for fabrication concerns, wire conduits, and the like.  
      There are many ways to install the air wall  50  in the computer system  30 . For example, please refer to  FIG. 7 ,  FIG. 8 , and  FIG. 9 , which illustrate three configurations of the air wall  50 . In  FIG. 7 , a pillar  64 A is set in the bottom of the air wall  50 , and can be fixed to the motherboard  32  with screws or hooks. In  FIG. 8 , the air wall  50  is set on the fan module  36  with screws  72 A (or other mechanism such as latches). As shown in  FIG. 9 , the air wall  50  can be constructed in unison with the fan module  36 . In this case, as long as the fan module  36  is set on the heat sink module  38  (with screws  72 B for example), the cooling module  38  of the present invention is achieved with the air wall  50 , and the approach  52  of the air wall  50  is also the air inlet of the heat sink module  38 .  
      Please refer to  FIG. 10  to  FIG. 12 .  FIG. 10  illustrates the present invention air wall  50  constructed with a brace  70 .  FIG. 11  illustrates the brace  70  with the air wall  50  installed in the computer system  30 .  FIG. 12  illustrates a cross-sectional view along a line  12 - 12  in  FIG. 11 . As  FIG. 10  illustrates, the present invention further includes a plurality of pillars  64 B fixed to the air wall  50 , where the top of each pillar  64 B is a connection end  68 B. Correspondingly, the brace  70  includes connection ends  68 A, so that the air wall  50  can be fixed to the brace  70  with the connection ends  68 B of the pillars  64 B. In the present invention, the connection end  68 B can be a hook, and the corresponding connection end  68 A can be a latch in order that the air wall  50  can be easily fixed to the brace  70  by plugging in/out. Certainly, as illustrated in  FIG. 10 , the brace  70  and the air wall  50  further include corresponding holes for a screw  72 C. In addition, other support devices  54 C (such as hard disks, CD-ROMs, card readers, etc) can be installed in the brace  70 .  
      As  FIG. 11  illustrates, after the brace  70  with the air wall  50  is set into the case  60  of the computer system  30  (with latches or screws), the air wall  50  and the support devices  54 C are set into the computer system  30  correspondingly. Please refer to  FIG. 12 . Besides fixing the air wall  50 , the brace  70  can stiffen the case  60 , so that the computer system  30  becomes more structurally stable. In addition, the brace  70  can contain support devices of the computer system  30 , to make fabrication of the computer system  30  easier. In the present invention, the brace  70  with the fan module  36  and the heat sink module  38  can fit the current design as long as the approach  52  of the air wall  50  conforms to shape of the fan module  36  (or the heat sink module  38 ), so as to form an airway through the fan module  36 .  
      In summary, the present invention isolates the air inlet of the fan module and the air outlet of the heat sink module with the air wall, so that heated air from the heat sink module is prevented from being recycled into the fan module. Therefore, the present invention cooling module has better heat dissipation efficiency than the prior art. Furthermore, the present invention can achieve the same heat dissipation efficiency as the prior art using a lower power and quieter fan. If the present invention uses the same power fan as in the prior art, the present invention achieves higher heat dissipation efficiency than the prior art, and further ensures normal operations of the computer system.  
      Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.