The Heat Pipe

 
The IBSMM CopperCool TechnologyTM is a passive cooling system ideal for embedded computers. Its main advantage is the perfect heat spreading from a source at a very small space (such as the microprocessor or chipset) to an outside region, where is the convenient environment for heatsink. The IBSMM CopperCool TechnologyTM uses heat pipes as the main working element.

 
The heat pipe can be simply described as a "heat mover" or "spreader". It earns the heat from a source (such as the microprocessor or chipset) and "transfers" it to a region where it can be more easily removed (for example to a heatsink). By using the heat pipe is this heat moved with very little temperature decrease.

The heat pipe is constructed as a sealed and evacuated tube, which contains a porous wick structure and a very small amount of working fluid inside.

 
The heat pipe has three sections: evaporator (contacted to heat source), adiabatic and condenser (contacted to heat removal system – e.g. heatsink). The heat is absorbed by the vaporization of the working fluid in the evaporator section. Then the generated vapor travels down the center of the tube through the adiabatic section to the condenser section where the vapor condenses, giving up its latent heat of vaporization. The condensed fluid is returned to the evaporator section by gravity or by capillary pumping in the porous wick structure. Heat pipe operates completely passive, continuously and with no moving parts to fail.