Patent ID: 7654311

Claim:
A thermal management system for transferring thermal energy across a boundary that includes at least one localized region of elevated heat flux adjacent to, and in uninterrupted thermal and direct, physical contact with a region of lesser heat flux, said region of lesser heat flux integrally and homogeneously formed with said region of elevated heat flux, the thermal management system comprising: an actively operable first heat transfer body having at least one first region terminated by the boundary at substantially the localized region of elevated heat flux and a second region displaced from physical contact with the boundary, said first region and said second region formed integrally one with another in said first heat transfer body, said second region being disposed substantially perpendicular to the flow of thermal energy through said boundary and through said at least one first region, wherein the flow of thermal energy traverses said second region in the same direction as said boundary; said first heat transfer body acting by an opposing heat flux in an opposing heat transport relationship with respect to the localized region of elevated heat flux; and a passively operable second heat transfer body being in heat transport relationship with said first heat transfer body and with the region of lesser heat flux; said thermal management system simultaneously providing both active and passive heat transport.