Patent ID: 7486514

Claim:
A cooling apparatus for an electronics assembly comprising a substrate supporting multiple heat generating electronics components, the cooling apparatus comprising: multiple discrete cold plates, each cold plate having a first surface configured to couple to a respective electronics component of the multiple electronics components, and each cold plate being a coolant-cooled cold plate including a coolant inlet and a coolant outlet with at least one coolant chamber disposed between the coolant inlet and the coolant outlet; a plurality of coolant-carrying tubes, each cold plate having at least two coolant-carrying tubes of the plurality of coolant-carrying tubes extending from a second surface thereof, each coolant-carrying tube being in fluid communication with one of the coolant inlet and the coolant outlet of the cold plate from which the coolant-carrying tube extends; an enclosure having a perimeter region for engaging the substrate to form an at least partially enclosed cavity with the multiple heat generating electronics components and the multiple cold plates being disposed within the cavity defined by the substrate and the enclosure, and wherein the enclosure is configured with a plurality of bores, each bore being sized and located to at least partially receive a respective coolant-carrying tube of the plurality of coolant-carrying tubes extending from the cold plates, the enclosure further being configured with a manifold in fluid communication with the plurality of bores and the plurality of coolant-carrying tubes disposed therein for distributing coolant in parallel to at least some cold plates of the multiple cold plates via a first set of coolant-carrying tubes of the plurality of coolant-carrying tubes in fluid communication with the coolant inlets of the multiple cold plates, and for receiving coolant from at least some cold plates of the multiple cold plates via a second set of coolant-carrying tubes of the plurality of coolant-carrying tubes in fluid communication with the coolant outlets of the multiple cold plates; and wherein the manifold further comprises a coolant inlet plenum and a coolant outlet plenum, the first set of coolant-carrying tubes being in fluid communication with the coolant inlet plenum and coupling in parallel the coolant inlets of the cold plates to the coolant inlet plenum, and the second set of coolant-carrying tubes being in fluid communication with the coolant outlet plenum and coupling in parallel the coolant outlets of the cold plates to the coolant outlet plenum, and the coolant inlet plenum and the coolant outlet plenum each comprising a plurality of coolant distribution fingers which extend over the at least some cold plates of the multiple cold plates for facilitating distribution of coolant in parallel to the at least some cold plates.