Cooling apparatus for electronic components

Fu-Lung Lin, New Taipei (TW); Shui-Fa Tsai, New Taipei (TW)

USPTO: us-11061450 · published 2026-05-12 · patents · G06F 1/20· H10W 40/47· G06F 2200/201· H10W 40/25· H10W 40/258· H10W 40/611

Cooling apparatus for electronic components

Shui-Fa Tsai, New Taipei (TW) , Fu-Lung Lin, New Taipei (TW) This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-15 15:31 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification patents G06F 1/20H10W 40/47G06F 2200/201H10W 40/25H10W 40/258H10W 40/611

keywords cooling apparatusheat exchange chamberflow guidance plateelectronic componentsbase platecover memberouter casing

0 comments

The pith

A cooling apparatus stacks a base plate, cover with dual openings, flow guidance plate, housing and outer casing to direct flow over a heat exchange unit.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The patent presents a specific layered cooling assembly for electronic components. A base plate carries the heat exchange unit. A cover member encloses it while placing two openings above the resulting chamber. A flow guidance plate sits on the cover, a housing rests on that plate, and an outer casing fastens everything to the base. The geometry is meant to channel coolant across the heat exchange surfaces more effectively than simpler enclosures.

Core claim

The claimed apparatus comprises a base plate with integrated heat exchange unit, a cover member that forms a chamber and positions a first and second opening above it, a flow guidance plate on the cover, a housing on the guidance plate, and an outer casing fixed to the base plate that encloses the internal stack.

What carries the argument

The cover member with its two openings located above the heat exchange chamber, together with the overlying flow guidance plate that routes fluid through those openings.

If this is right

The assembly can be mounted directly onto processors or power modules without additional ducting.
The two openings allow either forced-air or natural-convection operation by reversing inlet and outlet roles.
Standardized component sizes permit the same parts to serve multiple device form factors.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

The design could be adapted for liquid cooling by connecting the openings to external manifolds.
If the flow guidance plate is made removable, maintenance access to the heat exchange surfaces would improve.
Scaling the outer casing dimensions might allow the same concept to cool larger server boards.

Load-bearing premise

The particular placement and layering of the openings, plates and casings produces a useful improvement in cooling performance.

What would settle it

Side-by-side temperature measurements under identical heat load showing no difference between the described assembly and a plain heat sink of equal footprint.

read the original abstract

1 . A cooling apparatus, comprising: a base plate configured to dissipate heat and including a heat exchange unit; a cover member coupled to the base plate and at least partially enclosing the heat exchange unit, the cover member and the base plate defining a heat exchange chamber that includes the heat exchange unit, the cover member defining a first opening and a second opening, and the cover member being coupled to the base plate such that at least one of the first opening and the second opening is above the heat exchange chamber; a flow guidance plate disposed on the cover member; a housing disposed on the flow guidance plate; and an outer casing secured to the base plate and at least partially enclosing the cover member, the flow guidance plate, and the housing.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Desk Editor's Note private letter to a colleague

A standard patent claim for a stacked cooling assembly that lists parts but supplies zero performance data or prior-art comparison.

read the letter

This is a U.S. patent (US11061450) that recites one specific mechanical layout: a base plate with a heat-exchange unit, a cover that creates a chamber with two openings, a flow-guidance plate on top, a housing, and an outer casing. Nothing in the text shows improved heat transfer, lower pressure drop, or any measured advantage over existing cold-plate or heat-pipe designs already in use. The description is purely geometric; there are no equations, flow simulations, temperature readings, or side-by-side comparisons. What the filing does supply is a clear parts list and assembly order that a mechanical engineer could follow to build the unit. That level of detail is normal for a patent and may be useful for someone who needs to avoid infringement or wants a starting point for a similar product. The weakness is obvious: without any evidence that the arrangement actually cools better, the claim rests on the untested assumption that the listed geometry works as intended. For a research group this document has almost no value; it is not a result, a method, or a dataset. Hardware teams working on consumer-electronics cooling might still want to read the claims for IP reasons, but the text does not merit referee time or citation in a technical paper. Treat it as a patent filing and move on.

Referee Report

0 major / 2 minor

Summary. The manuscript is a U.S. patent claim (US11061450) describing a cooling apparatus for electronic components. It consists of a base plate with an integrated heat exchange unit, a cover member that partially encloses the unit and defines first and second openings positioned above the resulting heat exchange chamber, a flow guidance plate mounted on the cover, a housing on the guidance plate, and an outer casing secured to the base plate that encloses the internal assembly.

Significance. The described geometry may represent an incremental packaging arrangement for directing coolant flow over a heat exchange surface. Without any accompanying performance data, flow simulations, thermal measurements, or comparison to prior art, however, the practical improvement cannot be evaluated and the contribution remains a static parts list.

minor comments (2)

The text is written entirely in claim language and lacks any supporting description, drawings, or quantitative results that would normally be required for a journal article.
No section headings, equations, tables, or figures are present, making it impossible to reference specific technical content.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

1 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for reviewing the patent specification. The document describes a specific stacked cooling assembly with defined flow paths and chamber geometry. As this is a granted U.S. patent (US11061450), the contribution lies in the claimed structural arrangement rather than in performance metrics.

read point-by-point responses

Referee: The described geometry may represent an incremental packaging arrangement for directing coolant flow over a heat exchange surface. Without any accompanying performance data, flow simulations, thermal measurements, or comparison to prior art, however, the practical improvement cannot be evaluated and the contribution remains a static parts list.

Authors: Patent claims are evaluated on novelty and non-obviousness of the recited structure, not on empirical performance data. The claim recites a precise combination: a base plate with integrated heat-exchange unit, a cover defining openings positioned above the chamber, a flow-guidance plate, housing, and outer casing. This specific layered arrangement with guided flow paths is the inventive subject matter. Comparative data or simulations are not required for patentability and are outside the scope of the specification. revision: no

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity

full rationale

The document is a U.S. patent claim reciting a static geometric assembly of base plate, cover member, flow guidance plate, housing and outer casing. No equations, derivations, fitted parameters, predictions, or self-citations exist, so none of the enumerated circularity patterns can be instantiated. The description is self-contained as a parts list and contains no load-bearing technical step that reduces to its own inputs.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 0 axioms · 0 invented entities

No mathematical axioms, free parameters, or invented physical entities are invoked; the text is a parts-list description of an apparatus.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5470 in / 948 out tokens · 23636 ms · 2026-05-15T15:31:52.298471+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Lean theorems connected to this paper

Citations machine-checked in the Pith Canon. Every link opens the source theorem in the public Lean library.

IndisputableMonolith.Foundation.RealityFromDistinction reality_from_one_distinction unclear

?

unclear
Relation between the paper passage and the cited Recognition theorem.

A cooling apparatus, comprising: a base plate configured to dissipate heat and including a heat exchange unit; a cover member coupled to the base plate and at least partially enclosing the heat exchange unit, the cover member and the base plate defining a heat exchange chamber that includes the heat exchange unit, the cover member defining a first opening and a second opening...

What do these tags mean?

matches: The paper's claim is directly supported by a theorem in the formal canon.
supports: The theorem supports part of the paper's argument, but the paper may add assumptions or extra steps.
extends: The paper goes beyond the formal theorem; the theorem is a base layer rather than the whole result.
uses: The paper appears to rely on the theorem as machinery.
contradicts: The paper's claim conflicts with a theorem or certificate in the canon.
unclear: Pith found a possible connection, but the passage is too broad, indirect, or ambiguous to say the theorem truly supports the claim.