Latest development and application of heat pipes for electronics and automotive

Abstract

Heat pipe is a best known passive cooling & heating device which is excellent in heat transfer and low thermal resistance. Basically, heat pipe is a two-phase heat transfer device using latent heat. Heat pipe is a device of very high thermal conductance and its equivalent thermal conductivity can be several hundred times higher than that of a solid copper rod of the same dimensions. Currently, the largest use of heat pipes is in the cooling of computers and electronics products. Author believes that approximately 10 million pieces of heat pipes produced per month worldwide for these applications. There are many applications for heat pipes in computer and electronics, automotive, aviation, healthcare, energy saving, global warming, and environmental protection. Fast development in computing technology and the trend towards miniature architecture has created a more challenging task for cooling high powered electronics components in less space. Thermal solution providers are required to develop higher performance and thinner heat pipes for their cooling devices. In this paper contains latest heat pipe development in thermal performance enhancement, ultrathin heat pipe like 0.4mm thick and its application in portable tablet and handheld devices such as smart phones. With the increase of desire sophisticate control systems and features in vehicle means more heat dissipation and less space available for cooling, it seems that heat pipe becoming a necessity for use in automotive for cooling components such as cooling of head lamps, navigation electronic devices, power drive unit, and battery in this paper.