Apple reveals hybrid Diamond Cooling System for MacBooks
MacNN was first to break the news earlier this week concerning a newly proposed notebook cooling system patent form Apple and today; the US Patent & Trademark Office has revealed that Apple is also contemplating a secondary approach to cooling systems for notebooks. The secondary approach involves the use of a hybrid diamond heat spreader. With news this week that MacBooks are having trouble with heat issues once again, the timing of these dual patent revelations couldn’t be more appropriate. According to the documentation, Apple has been hard at work on this issue since early 2007.
About The Heat Spreader
Apple’s patent documentation presents us with FIG. 3A which describes a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a cooling mechanism, noted here as figure 300. In this cooling mechanism, one or more integrated circuits 112 are coupled to a heat sink 310 (such as heat pipe 114 in FIGS. 1A and 1B or heat exchanger 212 in FIGS. 2A and 2B) by a heat spreader 312-1.
In some embodiments, the documentation reveals that the heat spreader 312-1 includes an allotrope of carbon having an approximately face-centered-cubic crystal structure, such as single-crystal or polycrystalline diamond. This diamond may be produced using chemical vapor deposition (or another fabrication or manufacturing process). In addition to the physical properties discussed previously (including the thermal conductivity and the heat capacity), the heat spreader 312-1 may also have a good match to the thermal-expansion coefficients of the one or more integrated circuits 112 and/or the heat sink 310. Furthermore, the heat spreader 312-1 may have a high strength or stiffness value.
Note that one or both surfaces of the heat spreader 312-1 may be metalized with an over coats (for example, with titanium, platinum, and/or aluminum) to facilitate soldering to either or both of the thermal-interface materials 314.
Moreover, in some embodiments the heat spreader 312-2 is a heterogeneous or hybrid material. For example, the heat spreader 312-2 may include diamond and metal grains (such as aluminum and/or copper). This is shown in FIG. 3B, which presents a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a cooling mechanism 330 in which the heat spreader 312-2 includes metal particles 340 (which may have different cross-sectional areas).
Hybrid Diamond Heat Spreader
Of course the title and focus of Apple’s patent revolves around a hybrid diamond heat spreader and here in FIG.4, Apple briefly touches on this material. The figure presents a block diagram illustrating an embodiment 400 of a fin stack 410 (such as fin stack 124 in FIGS. 1A and 1B). This fin stack includes a layer 412 that includes the allotrope of carbon, such as single-crystal or polycrystalline diamond. Layer 412 may reduce the thermal resistance between the fin stack 410 and the fluid in fluid flows 122 (FIGS. 1A and 1B), thereby facilitating heat transfer between devices and/or computer systems (such as computer system 110 in FIGS. 1A and 1B) and the external environment.
Apple lists Ihab Ali.; (Santa Clara, CA), Frank F. Liang; (San Jose, CA) and Amaury Heresztyn (Mountain View, CA) as the inventors of this patent.
Other Apple Patents Published Today
Other Apple patents that were published by the USPTO today include the following: Methods and systems for white point adjustment and Peer-to-peer security authentication protocol. Two continuation patents filed today include Display Integrated Photodiode Matrix and Method and Apparatus for Detecting a Router that Improperly Responds to ARP Requests.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.
Written and researched by Jack Purcher.
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