Appliance for Releasable Fastening of a Cooling Member to an Integrated Module

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an appliance for releasably fastening the cooling member to an integrated module and, in particular, relates to such a module wherein the terminals of the module are disposed on the underside and extend up to the edge of the module.

2. Description of the Prior Art

The method of screwing or the method of pinching by way of a resilient design of a cooling member itself is frequently applied for fastening cooling members to individual semiconductors. These methods, however, are not suited to fastening cooling members to integrated circuits, particularly to integrated circuits having a multitude of terminals disposed on the underside, which terminals usually extend up to the edge of the module. It is known, for this purpose, to groove the cooling member directly to the top side of the integrated module. The disadvantage of this method is that the cooling member cannot be non-destructively separated from the module. It has been disclosed, for the releasable fastening of a cooling member to an integrated module, to press the cooling member onto the integrated module from the top with the assistance of a spring clip. Such known spring clips consist of sheet spring steel and therefore create the hazard of a short circuit of the terminals disposed on the underside of the module and extending up to the edge of the module. In order to avoid this hazard, insulator parts are additionally disposed between the spring clip and the integrated module. This, in turn, has the disadvantage that insulator parts must also be manufactured in addition to the spring clip and then attached and that, further, the spring clip takes up additional lateral space, this being extremely undesirable in light of the high packing density of modern electronic systems. Since the known spring clip for releasably fastening a cooling member to an integrated module press the cooling member onto the module from the top, additional spaces also wasted by the spring clip in the height and the cooling member must be made correspondingly smaller given a prescribed overall height; this can lead to the fact that the cooling capacity is no longer adequate.

It is therefore the object of the invention to provide an appliance which avoids the disadvantages of the aforementioned known means and which also requires no special tools when mounting or dismounting the cooling member.

The above object is achieved, according to the present invention, with a spring clip that is bent into a H-shaped and which comprises a centrally-disposed opening roughly corresponding to the core diameter of the cooling member for the purpose of encompassing the cooling member between the cooling ribs, and is further achieved by at least one parting line for a single-sided spreading of the spring clip upon insertion between the cooling ribs of the cooling member, as well as by way of spreader brackets which project laterally up. Further, the spring clip bent into a H-shaped also comprises two pair of T-shaped projections disposed at the leg ends of the spring clip, the projections engaging flatly into correspondingly disposed, rectangular recesses at the side of the integrated module or, respectively, of the plug base for the module.

Other objects, features and advantage of the invention, its organization, construction and operation will be best understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, on which:

FIG. 1 is a plan development view of a spring clip constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are side views of the bent and finished spring clip;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are different side views of the spring clip shown mounted on a cooling member for an integrated module together with a plug base; and

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the plug base for the integrated module.

Referring to FIG. 1, a development of a spring clip is illustrated at 1. It can be seen that the spring clip essentially has a rectangular shape and comprises an opening 2 disposed roughly centrally and roughly corresponding to the core diameter of a cooling member 3 (FIGS. 4 and 5). A parting line 4 is also provided, this enabling the spring clip to be spread apart when it is introduced between the cooling ribs of the cooling member 3. U-shaped slots 6 are also located in the spring clip 1 and serve the purpose of forming so-called spreader brackets 5 after the spring clip has been bent into its final shape, as illustrated in FIG. 2.

Two pair of T-shaped projections 7 each projection including a cross bar on a respective leg are disposed at the ends of the H-shaped spring clip 1 and are bent only slightly in the direction toward the integrated module 8 or, respectively, the plug base 9, as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 5. When the cooling member 3 is clamped to the integrated module 8, these T-shaped projections 7 engage into correspondingly arranged, rectangular recesses 10 at the side of the plug base 9 for the integrated module, as may be seen in FIG. 6.

According to an advantageous feature of the invention, a locking structure 11 for locking the spring clip is provided at the divisible side of the spring clip 1. The locking structure 11 advantageously comprises an L-shaped projection 12 (FIG. 3) disposed at the one leg of the divisible side of the spring clip 1 and an L-shaped recess 13 disposed at the other leg of the divisible side of the spring clip, the elements 12 and 13 interlocking after the spring clip has been inserted between the ribs of the cooling member 3 and thus holding the divisible side of the spring clip 1 closed.

In order, on the one hand, to achieve adequate stability of the spring clip 1 but, on the other hand, to facilitate the spreading of the spring clip upon introduction between the ribs of the cooling member, a U-shaped slot 14 extending parallel to the edges of the spreader bracket 5 is provided in accordance with another feature of the invention in the spreader bracket 5 of the non-divisible side of the spring clip 1. This U-shaped slot communicates with a straight line slot 15 which extends centrally from the corresponding end of the spring clip to the U-shaped slot 14. Movement of the spreader brackets 5 away from one another facilitates spreading of the central opening 2 to facilitate introduction of the bracket portions adjacent the opening 2 between the ribs, while movement of the spreader brackets 5 toward one another facilitate movement of the T-shaped projection 7 outwardly to clear the edges of the base 9 and facilitate mounting and dismounting of the spring clip 1.

In order to achieve good contact pressure of the cooling member 3 against the integrated module 8, the central opening portion of the H-shaped spring clip 1 is bent down in the direction toward the integrated module 8, such as shown here to have a V shape.

Visible, finally, with reference to FIG. 6, is that the upper edges 16 of those sides of the plug base 9 in which the recesses 10 receiving the T-shaped projections of the spring clip 1 are provided are slanted toward the side of the cooling member. These diagonals facilitate the introduction of the T-shaped projections 7 into the allocated recesses 10.

Although I have described my invention by reference to particular illustrative embodiments thereof, many changes and modifications of the invention may become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. I therefore intend to include within the patent warranted hereon all such changes and modifications as may reasonably and properly be included within the scope of my contribution to the art.