April 11, 2003
Furukawa Electric has brought various heat sinks into market under the slogan of "total thermal solution set", an integrated proposal for heat dissipation of electronic equipment. Recently, the company has developed an innovative sheet-type heat sink, a vapor chamber thinnest in the world, which enables cooling of semiconductor chips in mobile electronic equipment such as notebook PCs, cellular phones and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) as well as CCD (Charge-Coupled Device, an imaging device used in digital cameras). The heat sink can also be used for equalizing the heat distribution within the casings.
Recently heat pipes, a superconductor of heat, of small size --1.6~2.5 mm in thickness and 10 mm or less in width-- have been extensively used for heat dissipation of digital home appliances, communications equipment (e.g., router in base stations for mobile communications) and automobiles (e.g., electronic toll collection (ETC) and car navigation systems). As these equipment get lighter, thinner and smaller rapidly, however, conventional rigid heat pipes of small size proved that they are difficult to be installed due to the limited space allowed for mounting. Thus it has been urgently required to develop an efficient heat conductor that is as thin as and as flexible as paper, while providing heat-dissipating and heat-equalizing functions. Although heat-dissipating sheets called "thermal sheet" using carbon graphite and the like having high heat conductivity have recently been used in practical applications, their effectiveness is known to be insufficient.
To solve the problems above mentioned the company has developed a sheet-type heat sink with a thickness of less than 1 mm, the thinnest in the world. The heat conductivity of this product is, although somewhat dependent on the shape, by far superior to that of a 10-mm thick copper block. Because the width, length and thickness can be freely selected to adapt the product to the design requirements of individual electronic equipment with regard to heat dissipating performance and shape, and because the product can be easily installed in a free space of small dimensions in the equipment, use of the product is very effective in solving many thermal problems such as eliminating accumulation of heat, heat equalization and heat dissipation. For instance, a product 0.6 mm in thickness, 20 mm in width and 150 mm in length can dissipate a heat amount of up to 10 W, and several tens of W in case the thickness is increased to 1 mm. Thus implementation of measures for the heat dissipation of high-density mounted electronic equipment of these days can be made significantly easier.
Through the development of this sheet-type heat sink, Furukawa Electric now covers a wide range of heat dissipation business from the low heat generation to high heat generation areas, offering a comprehensive lineup of heat-dissipating components for PCs, digital home appliances, communications equipment and heavy electric machinery (e.g., inverters for trains and substations), thereby furthermore strengthening the framework for "total thermal solution set".
Sample shipment of this sheet-type heat sink is scheduled to begin in this April, aiming at practical applications in various fields focusing on digital home appliances. The sales are planned to be 300 thousand sheets for 2003, and five million sheets for 2004. Several patents have been filed concerning this sheet-type heat sink.