Electronics enclosure for power electronics with passive thermal management

摘要

An electronics enclosure is provided with passive thermal management for a high power electronic units, for example a power amplifier for wireless telecommunications, the enclosure being suitable for mast head mounted units, or remotely located units exposed to a wide range of weather conditions. The use of heat pipes in place of a conventional heat sink provides for natural convection cooling and eliminates the need for fans. Appropriate selection of materials, using copper and aluminum respectively, for the construction of heat pipe and cooling fin assemblies provides a significant reduction in weight and volume is achieved relative to know units having conventional heatsinks and forced air convection cooling. Since the heat pipe efficiency decreases at low temperature, the power amplifier self heats the unit in cold weather and eliminates the need for heaters. This further reduces the power consumption and the size of the unit.