Safety Considerations for Liquid Filled Heat Sinks

Abstract

The basis for applying safeguard requirements to Information Technology Equipment (ITE) containing liquids is the requirement in sub-clause 4.3.10 of I EC 60950-1. It provide very general guidelines and do not completely specify the required safeguards and safeguard requirements. We need to look into other standards which address equipment that use pressurized and non-pressurized liquid containment vessels and address compatibility issues when plastic materials are used in conjunction with liquids. Product sizes are continuously being reduced and integrated circuit (IC) chips are becoming more compact containing more and more components. They are also going up in processing speeds. Products that try to keep up with new technology need more power and as a result, generate more heat in the equipment. This heat must be moved out of the product. There are many different types of systems available for cooling (moving heat out of the product). We are going to discuss mainly two types of liquid cooling systems here: liquid cooling heat pipes and liquid filled heat sink system.