Abstract-The primary drawback of thermoelectric coolers (TECs) for electronics cooling applications is their thermodynamic inefficiency due to material limitations. The present work considers a control strategy to improve the overall coefficient of performance in an engineering system instead of addressing material shortcomings. Typical TECs are composed of several individual thermocouples that are powered in series and remove heat in parallel. If one of the numerous thermocouples is powered, all the thermocouples receive the same power whether or not they are needed. The fact that chips heat nonuniformly provides an opportunity for performance enhancement, by sensing and controlling the power to individual couples within the device. The current work presents evidence that applying distributed control to TEC operation can realize appreciable improvement in performance. Compared to monolithic cooling devices, a distributed control strategy can realize a factor of 2 increase in performance for the device studied. Additionally, this type of control can be used in conjunction with many of the existing material-based research initiatives to further compound the benefits.
Thermoelectric coolers (TECs) have become potential solutions for chip cooling applications. However, the scope of TEC applicability is limited because of poor efficiency that is largely governed by material properties. This low efficiency causes increased heat production resulting in a very narrow band in which the TEC is effective. Since TECs are cooling units composed of numerous individual cooling elements, or thermocouples, the operating efficiency can be improved by implementing distributed control of the individual couples. Distributed control is a system for allowing each couple to be powered depending on the localized heat load. Distributed control would allow for increased cooling in hot spots while minimizing excess heat generated by the TEC in areas where it is not needed. The preliminary results suggest that this type of control may be feasible, and would result in a significant increase in the TEC effectiveness. The current model considers lateral heat conduction in the chip, as well as variable control of the individual thermocouples proportional to heat load. Results indicate that a 2-fold increase in COP is possible with independently controlled couples compared to a single cooler.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.