The trend of the processor performance and heat dissipation have been increased significantly every year. In the year 2000, the clock speed of processors used in Personal Computers (PC) was approximately 1GHz and heat dissipation approximately 20 W, but in the year 2004 the processor’s clock speed is higher than 3 GHz and the heat dissipation is approaching 100 W. Heat dissipation has increased but in contrast the size of die on the processor has reduced or remained the same size and thus the heat flux is critically high. The heat flux is about 10–15 W/cm2 in the year 2000 and could reach 100 W/cm2 in 2005. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of practical various cooling solutions including the use of heat pipes and vapor chambers for cooling high power processors in a confined space of PCs. This paper discusses how to extend the air cooling capability and maximize its performance. Included in this paper are the design, data, photos and discussion of various fan sink air cooling designs showing how the design changes can push the limit of the air cooling capability.

Volume Subject Area:
Thermal Management of Electronic and Photonic Systems
Keywords:
Heat pipe, Vapor chamber, Computer cooling, Fan heat sink
Topics:
Cooling, Heat pipes, Heat sinks, Laptop computers, Vapors, Energy dissipation, Heat, Clocks, Design, Heat flux, Computer cooling, Computers, Dynamic light scattering
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Copyright © 2005
 by ASME
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