Flexible finned heat exchanger

Abstract

A heat exchanger for cooling an array of electric circuit chips disposed on a common substrate is formed as a flexible sheet of thermally conducting material with upstanding fins for transference of heat from the chips to a coolant flowing through the fins. Pin fins may be employed with air coolant. The sheet may be provided with corrugations set between sites of the chips for improved flexibility to accommodate individual orientations of the chips. The sheet is sufficiently large to cover an array of chips and is thermally joined, as by use of a thermally conductive grease, to the chips. The sheet hermetically seals the chips from contamination by the coolant. For liquid coolant, the heat exchanger may be fabricated of copper with a nickel coating, wherein the copper provides the heat conduction and the nickel protects the copper from a corrosive coolant such as water. In one embodiment of the heat exchanger, the fin thickness, the fin spacing and the sheet thickness are all approximately equal, a typical sheet thickness being approximately two mils. Another embodiment uses air cooling, and uses metal pin fins bonded to a metal sheet which is moderately thin and flexible. Transverse motion between the sheet and the array of chips is introduced concurrently with the application of pressure between the sheet and the chips to reduce the thickness of the layers of grease between the chips and the sheet, thereby to improve thermal conductivity between the heat exchanger and each of the chips.