JP2504815B2 - Cooling system - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cooling device, and more particularly to a cooling device for cooling a heat source such as an integrated circuit in an electronic device such as an information processing device by a liquid cooling method.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, air cooling methods such as natural air cooling and forced air cooling have been mainly used for cooling integrated circuits and the like in electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, heat generation density in electronic devices has increased with the large-scale integration of circuit elements and high-density mounting, and these devices often adopt a liquid cooling method. In the liquid cooling method, for example, there is a method in which a liquid refrigerant is flown into a flat plate, a heat source such as an integrated circuit is brought into close contact with the flat plate, and heat is transferred to the refrigerant. This type of liquid refrigerant is circulated through the object to be cooled,
An example of a conventional cooling device that removes heat will be described with reference to FIG.

The cooling device 1 for cooling the electronic device 11 includes a plurality of coolers 7a, 7b, 7c inside, a tank 10 that stores a liquid refrigerant and absorbs a volume change due to the temperature of the refrigerant, and an electronic device that cools the refrigerant outside the device. A pump 2 for supplying and circulating the equipment 11, a refrigerant pipe 9 connecting them in series, and a cooler 7 (7a, 7b, 7c)
Control unit 5, which controls the cooling unit 7, an operation command line 6 for controlling the cooling unit 7, a signal line 12 for transmitting an abnormality of the cooling unit 7 to the control unit 5, a refrigerant receiving port 8, and a refrigerant feeding unit. And an outlet 3.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the internal configuration of the cooler 7. Cooler 7
Uses Freon as a refrigerant, and uses a compressor 13 and a condenser 14
The expansion valve 15 and the evaporator 16 are connected by a Freon refrigerant pipe 17 to form a closed circuit. When the cooler 7 is operated, the compressor 13 compresses freon, the heat generated by the compression in the condenser 14 is radiated by the fan 18, the expansion valve 16 expands it to absorb the heat in the evaporator 17, and the compressor 13 compresses it again. Repeat the Freon refrigeration cycle. As means for detecting a failure, a low pressure gas detector 19 is installed between the compressor 13 and the evaporator 16, and a high pressure gas detector 20 is installed between the compressor 13 and the condenser 14. When a failure is detected by these devices, the failure is transmitted to the control unit 5 through the signal line 12.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. Of the three coolers 7a, 7b, 7c in the cooling device 1, normally two are in operation and one is a spare. When the pressure of the CFC refrigerant decreases and is detected by the low pressure gas detector 19, or when the pressure of the CFC refrigerant increases and is detected by the high pressure gas detector 20, the corresponding cooler 7i (i is a, b or c) is stopped and the operation of the spare cooler is started.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

Since the conventional cooling device described above uses a low-pressure gas detector or a high-pressure gas detector for failure detection means, it can usually detect only a certain gas pressure or less, so the CFC refrigerant leaks to some extent. If not, it will not be detected as a failure. Therefore, replacement of the cooler is not performed until the time of detection. That is, when the CFC refrigerant gradually leaks, the cooling capacity of the cooler continues to decrease until it is detected by the gas pressure detector.

Therefore, the temperature of the refrigerant sent to the electronic device continues to rise,
There is a problem that the temperature of a heat source such as an integrated circuit in the electronic device also rises, which adversely affects the reliability of the electronic device.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a cooling device in which the temperature rise of an integrated circuit or the like in an electronic device due to the temperature rise of the refrigerant of the cooling device is made small.

[Means for solving the problem]

The cooling device of the present invention includes a plurality of coolers including a spare,
A cooling device that includes a control unit that individually controls the operation and stop of each of the coolers, and sends the liquid refrigerant cooled by the cooler to an electronic device to cool a heat source such as an integrated circuit. A temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the liquid refrigerant is installed near the outlet of the refrigerant, the control unit constantly monitors the temperature change per unit time of the delivery temperature of the liquid refrigerant, and the temperature of the liquid refrigerant rises for a certain period of time. If it continues, it is judged that there is a defective cooler in the operating coolers, and the operation of stopping any one of the operating coolers and operating the spare cooler is repeated, and It is configured by selecting a combination of a plurality of coolers that does not rise.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.
A temperature sensor 4 for monitoring the delivery temperature of the liquid refrigerant between the pump 2 and the refrigerant delivery port 3 of the conventional cooling device 1 shown in the figure.
Is installed. The temperature of the liquid refrigerant is detected by the temperature sensor 4, and the controller 5 constantly monitors the temperature change per unit time. The control unit 5 uses the operation command line 6
Allows the cooler 7i to be operated and stopped independently, and if the liquid refrigerant temperature per unit time of the liquid refrigerant continues to rise, one of the operated coolers 7i has failed. You can judge that there is a vessel. The liquid refrigerant enters the cooling device 1 through the refrigerant receiving port 8, reaches the tank 10 through the cooling device 7i through the refrigerant pipe 9, and is sent from the pump 2 to the electronic device through the refrigerant sending port 3.

Next, the detection means of the failed cooler will be shown. For example, in FIG. 1, when the coolers 7a and 7b are in operation and the cooler 7c is a spare cooler, it is detected by the temperature sensor 4 that the liquid refrigerant temperature continues to rise for a certain period of time. In this case, the control unit 5 determines that one of the coolers 7a and 7b has a defective cooler, and activates the spare cooler 7c to
Stop 7a. Operate with two coolers, coolers 7b and 7c, and if the temperature of the liquid refrigerant does not rise for a certain period of time, cooler
It is determined that 7a is out of order, and the cooling device 1 determines
To continue driving.

In the state where the cooler 7a is stopped and the coolers 7b and 7c are operated, if the temperature rise of the liquid refrigerant continues for a certain period of time, the cooler 7a is operated and the cooler 7b is stopped. Then, the coolers 7a and 7c are operated for a certain period of time, and when the temperature of the liquid refrigerant does not rise, it is determined that the cooler 7b is out of order. Therefore, the cooling device 1 is maintained in operation by the coolers 7a and 7c.

Further, in the present invention, since the temperature sensor may be attached to the conventional cooling device and the control method of the control device may be changed, it is possible to use the temperature sensor together with the detector attached to the conventional cooling device. The low-pressure gas detector may be omitted.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the present invention, the control unit constantly monitors the temperature change rate of the CFC refrigerant due to the leakage of CFC refrigerant from the CFC refrigerant pipe of the cooler, etc. By finding the combination of coolers, I tried to find the defective cooler,
The defective cooler can be stopped early.

That is, there is an effect that the temperature rise of the heat source such as the integrated circuit in the electronic device due to the temperature rise of the refrigerant of the cooling device can be made small.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional cooling device, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a cooler. 1 ... Cooling device, 2 ... Pump, 3 ... Refrigerant outlet, 4
...... Temperature sensor, 5 ...... Control unit, 6 ...... Operation command line,
7 ... Cooler, 8 ... Refrigerant inlet, 9 ... Refrigerant piping, 10
…… Tank, 11 …… Electronic equipment, 12 …… Signal line, 13 …… Compressor, 14 …… Condenser, 15 …… Expansion valve, 16 …… Evaporator, 17 …… CFC refrigerant pipe, 18 …… Fan , 19 ...... Low pressure gas detector, 20 ...... High pressure gas detector.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of coolers including a spare, and a control unit for individually controlling the operation and stop of each of the coolers, and sending the liquid refrigerant cooled by the cooler to an electronic device. In a cooling device for cooling a heat source such as an integrated circuit, a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the liquid refrigerant is installed in the vicinity of the outlet of the liquid refrigerant, and the control unit per unit time of the delivery temperature of the liquid refrigerant. The temperature change is constantly monitored, and if the temperature of the liquid refrigerant continues to rise for a certain period of time, it is determined that there is a malfunctioning cooler in the coolers that are operating, and one of the coolers that is operating is set to 1 A cooling device, characterized in that a combination of a plurality of coolers having no temperature rise is selected by repeating an operation of stopping a stand and operating a spare cooler.