Heat driven cooling of portable electronics using thermoelectric technology

Author

Solbrekken, Gary L. ; Yazawa, Kazuaki ; Bar-Cohen, Avram

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. & Aerosp. Eng., Missouri-Columbia Univ., Columbia, MO

Volume

31

Issue

2

fYear

2008

fDate

5/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

429

Lastpage

437

Abstract

A novel ldquoshunt attachrdquo configuration for chip-scale thermoelectric (TE) generation of electric power from microprocessor waste heat is described, modeled, and parametrically analyzed. The generated electricity is used to drive a cooling fan that convectively cools the chip. A prototype using heat-driven cooling through off-the-shelf TE modules and a low-voltage fan was built and successfully applied to the thermal management of a high-power mobile processor in a portable equipment form factor.

Keywords

cooling; microprocessor chips; temperature control; thermoelectric conversion; chip-scale thermoelectric power generation; heat driven cooling; high- power mobile processor; microprocessor waste heat; off-the-shelf TE modules; portable electronics; portable equipment form factor; shunt attach configuration; thermal management; Electric resistance; Electronics cooling; Energy conversion; Power generation; Temperature; Thermal management; Thermal resistance; Thermoelectricity; Waste heat; Portable equipment; thermal management; thermo electric (TE) generation; waste heat recovery;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Advanced Packaging, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1521-3323

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TADVP.2008.920356

Filename

4472844