| description abstract | Foldable smartphones are expected to be widely commercialized in the near future. Thermal ground plane (TGP), known as vapor chamber or two-dimensional flat heat pipe, is a promising solution for the thermal management of foldable smartphones. There are two approaches to designing a TGP for foldable smartphones. One approach uses two TGPs connected by a graphite bridge and the other approach uses a single, large, and foldable TGP. In this study, different thermal management solutions are simulated for a representative foldable smartphone with screen dimensions of 144 × 138.3 mm2 (twice the screen of iPhone 6 s with a 10 mm gap). In addition, the simulation includes two heat sources representing a main processor with dimensions of 14.45 × 14.41 mm2 and power of 3.3 W (A9 processor in iPhone 6S) and a broadband processor with dimensions of 8.26 × 9.02 mm2 and power of 2.5 W (Qualcomm broadband processor). For the simulation, a finite element method (FEM) model is calibrated and verified by steady-state experiments of two different TGPs. The calibrated model is then used to study three different cases: a graphite heat spreader, two TGPs with a graphite hinge, and a single, large, and foldable TGP. In the fully unfolded configuration, using a graphite heat spreader, the temperature difference across the spreader's surface is about 17 °C. For the design using two TGPs connected by a graphite bridge, the temperature difference is about 7.2 °C. Finally, for the design using a single large TGP with a joint region, the temperature difference is only 1–2 °C. These results suggest that a single foldable TGP or a configuration with two TGPs outperform the graphite sheet solution for the thermal management of foldable smartphones. | |
