Chip Level Refrigeration of Portable Electronic Equipment Using Thermoelectric Devices

Author(s):  
Gary L. Solbrekken ◽  
Kazuaki Yazawa ◽  
Avram Bar-Cohen

It is well established that the power dissipation for electronic components is increasing. At the same time, high performance portable equipment with volume, weight, and power limitations are gaining widespread acceptance in the marketplace. The combination of the above conditions requires thermal solutions that are high performance and yet small, light, and power efficient. This paper explores the possibility of using thermoelectric (TE) refrigeration as an integrated solution for portable electronic equipment accounting for heat sink and interface material thermal resistances. The current study shows that TE refrigeration can indeed have a benefit over using just a heat sink. Performance maps illustrating where TE refrigeration offers an advantage over an air-cooled heat sink are created for a parametric range of CPU heat flows, heat sink thermal resistances, and TE material properties. During the course of the study, it was found that setting the TE operating current based on minimizing the CPU temperature (Tj), as opposed to maximizing the amount of heat pumping, significantly reduces Tj. For the baseline case studied, a reduction of 20–30°C was demonstrated over a range of CPU heat dissipation. The parametric studies also illustrate that management of the heat sink thermal resistance appears to be more critical than the CPU/TE interfacial thermal resistance. However, setting the TE current based on a minimum Tj as opposed to maximum heat pumping reduces the system sensitivity to the heat sink thermal resistance.

Author(s):  
Nico Setiawan Effendi ◽  
Kyoung Joon Kim

A computational study is conducted to explore thermal performances of natural convection hybrid fin heat sinks (HF HSs). The proposed HF HSs are a hollow hybrid fin heat sink (HHF HS) and a solid hybrid fin heat sink (SHF HS). Parametric effects such as a fin spacing, an internal channel diameter, a heat dissipation on the performance of HF HSs are investigated by CFD analysis. Study results show that the thermal resistance of the HS increases while the mass-multiplied thermal resistance of the HS decreases associated with the increase of the channel diameter. The results also shows the thermal resistance of the SHF HS is 13% smaller, and the mass-multiplied thermal resistance of the HHF HS is 32% smaller compared with the pin fin heat sink (PF HS). These interesting results are mainly due to integrated effects of the mass-reduction, the surface area enhancement, and the heat pumping via the internal channel. Such better performances of HF HSs show the feasibility of alternatives to the conventional PF HS especially for passive cooling of LED lighting modules.


2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Warzoha ◽  
Andrew N. Smith ◽  
Maurice Harris

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) constitute a critical component for heat dissipation in electronic packaging systems. However, the extent to which a conventional steady-state thermal characterization apparatus can resolve the interfacial thermal resistance across current high-performance interfaces (RT < 1 mm2⋅K/W) is not clear. In this work, we quantify the minimum value of RT that can be measured with this instrument. We find that in order to increase the resolution of the measurement, the thermal resistance through the instrument's reference bars must be minimized relative to RT. This is practically achieved by reducing reference bar length. However, we purport that the minimization of reference bar length is limited by the effects of thermal probe intrusion along the primary measurement pathway. Using numerical simulations, we find that the characteristics of the probes and surrounding filler material can significantly impact the measurement of temperature along each reference bar. Moreover, we find that probes must be spaced 15 diameters apart to maintain a uniform heat flux at the interface, which limits the number of thermal probes that can be used for a given reference bar length. Within practical constraints, the minimum thermal resistance that can be measured with an ideal instrument is found to be 3 mm2⋅K/W. To verify these results, the thermal resistance across an indium heat spring material with an expected thermal contact resistance of ∼1 mm2⋅K/W is experimentally measured and found to differ by more than 100% when compared to manufacturer-reported values.


2012 ◽  
Vol 459 ◽  
pp. 609-614
Author(s):  
Kuo Zoo Liang ◽  
A Cheng Wang ◽  
Chun Ho Liu ◽  
Lung Tasi ◽  
Yan Cherng Lin

The purpose of this research is to design a new heat sink of water-cooling. With the aid of CAE (computer aided engineering), WEDM (wire electrical discharge machining), and the concept of micro-channel design, a heat sink of water-cooling can then be built with the merit of a smaller volume and lower thermal resistance. From this paper, results of the experiment indicate that the thermal resistance of heat sink can be decreased to 0.12 °C/W with input power of 60W, flow rate of 0.6 LPM, and a better heat dissipation with the in input power of 100W or 140W can be revealed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yueguang Deng ◽  
Jing Liu

Broad societal needs have focused attention on technologies that can effectively dissipate huge amount of heat from high power density electronic devices. Liquid metal cooling, which has been proposed in recent years, is fast emerging as a novel and promising solution to meet the requirements of high heat flux optoelectronic devices. In this paper, a design and implementation of a practical liquid metal cooling device for heat dissipation of high performance CPUs was demonstrated. GaInSn alloy with the melting point around 10°C was adopted as the coolant and a tower structure was implemented so that the lowest coolant amount was used. In order to better understand the design procedure and cooling capability, several crucial design principles and related fundamental theories were demonstrated and discussed. In the experimental study, two typical prototypes have been fabricated to evaluate the cooling performance of this liquid metal cooling device. The compared results with typical water cooling and commercially available heat pipes show that the present device could achieve excellent cooling capability. The thermal resistance could be as low as 0.13°C/W, which is competitive with most of the latest advanced CPU cooling devices in the market. Although the cost (about 70 dollars) is still relatively high, it could be significantly reduced to less than 30 dollars with the optimization of flow channel. Considering its advantages of low thermal resistance, capability to cope with extremely high heat flux, stability, durability, and energy saving characteristic when compared with heat pipe and water cooling, this liquid metal cooling device is quite practical for future application.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanmugan Subramani ◽  
Mutharasu Devarajan

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to study the effect of thickness and surface properties of ZnO solid thin film for heat dissipation application in LED. Heat dissipation in electronic packaging can be improved by applying a thermally conductive interface material (TIM) and hence the junction temperature will be maintained. ZnO is one of the oxide materials and used as a filler to increase the thermal conductivity of thermal paste. The thickness of these paste-type material cannot be controlled which restricts the heat flow from the LED junction to ambient. The controlled thickness is only possible by using a solid thin-film interface material. Design/methodology/approach – Radio Frequency (RF)-sputtered ZnO thin film on Cu substrates were used as a heat sink for high-power LED and the thermal performance of various ZnO thin film thickness on changing total thermal resistance (R th-tot) and rise in junction temperature were tested. Thermal transient analysis was used to study the performance of the given LED. The influence of surface roughness profile was also tested on the LED performance. Findings – The junction temperature was high (6.35°C) for 200 nm thickness of ZnO thin film boundary condition when compared with bare Cu substrates. Consecutively, low R th-tot values were noticed with the same boundary condition. The 600 nm thickness of ZnO thin film exhibited high R th-tot and interface resistance than the other thicknesses. Bond Line Thickness of the interface material was influenced on the interface thermal resistance which was decreased with increased BLT. Surface roughness parameter showed an immense effect on thermal transport, and hence, low R th (47.6 K/W) value was noticed with low film roughness (7 nm) as compared with bare Cu substrate (50.8 K/W) where the surface roughness was 20.5 nm. Originality/value – Instead of using thermal paste, solid thin film ZnO is used as TIM and coated Cu substrates were used as a heat sink. The thickness can be controlled, and it is a new approach for reducing the BLT between the metal core printed circuit board and heat sink.


Author(s):  
Xuegong Hu ◽  
Dawei Tang

In this paper, a natural convection micro cooling system with a capillary microgroove evaporator is proposed. An experimental study on the characteristics of thermal resistance, pressure drop and heat transfer of the cooling system was carried out. Experimental results indicate that the liquid fill ratio has a significant influence on thermal resistance and heat transfer in the cooling system. Increasing system’s cooling capacity at higher input power depends on decreasing the thermal resistance between the outer surfaces of the condenser and ambient environment. Compared with a flat miniature heat pipe (FMHP) and a current fan-cooled radiator for CPU chip of Pentium IV, the present micro cooling system has a stronger heat dissipation capacity. Its best cooling performance at a surface temperature of heat source below 373K reaches 1.68×106W/m2 and the maximum heat transportation capacity is 131.8W. The novel kind of cooling system is suitable for remote cooling of those electronic parts with micro size, high power and thermal sensitivity.


Author(s):  
Da Yu ◽  
Tung Nguyen ◽  
Ho H. Lee ◽  
Namseo Goo ◽  
S. B. Park

The ever increasing power density in modern semiconductor devices requires heat dissipation solution such as heat sink to remove the heat away from the device. A compressive loading was applied to reduce the interfacial thermal resistance between package and heat sink. In this study both numerical modeling and experimental approaches were employed to study the effect of compressive loading on the interconnect reliability, especially for high power density package, under thermal cycling loading conditions. The JEDEC standard thermal cycle tests were conducted and the resistance of the daisy chained circuits was in-situ measured to record the failure time. The failure analysis has been performed to indentify the failure modes of solder joint with and without the presence of compressive loading. A finite element based thermal fatigue life prediction model for SAC305 solder joint under compressive loading was also developed and validated with the experimental results.


2021 ◽  
pp. 81-81
Author(s):  
Zulfiqar Khattak ◽  
Hafiz Ali

Heat dissipation is becoming more and more challenging with the preface of new electronic components having staggering heat generation levels. Present day solutions should have optimized outcomes with reference to the heat sink scenarios. The experimental and theoretical results for plate type heat sink based on mathematical models have been presented in the first part of the paper. Then the parametric optimization (topology optimization) of plate type heat sink using Levenberg-Marquardt technique employed in the COMSOL Multiphysics? software is discussed. Thermal resistance of heat sink is taken as objective function against the variable length in a predefined range. Single as well as multi-parametric optimization of plate type heat sink is reported in the context of pressure drop and air velocity (Reynolds number) inside the tunnel. The results reported are compared with the numerical modeled data and experimental investigation to establish the conformity of results for applied usage. Mutual reimbursements of greater heat dissipation with minimum flow rates are confidently achievable through balanced, heat sink geometry as evident by the presented simulation outcome. About 12% enhancement in pressure drop and up to 51% improvement in thermal resistance is reported for the optimized plate fin heat sink as per data manifested.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Da Yu ◽  
Hohyung Lee ◽  
Seungbae Park

The ever increasing power density in modern semiconductor devices requires heat dissipation solution such as heat sink to remove heat away from the device. A compressive loading is usually applied to reduce the interfacial thermal resistance between package and heat sink. In this paper, both experimental approaches and numerical modeling were employed to study the effect of compressive loading on the interconnect reliability under thermal cycling conditions. A special loading fixture which simulated the heat sink was designed to apply compressive loading to the package. The JEDEC standard thermal cycle tests were performed and the resistance of daisy chained circuits was in situ measured. The time to crack initiation and time to permanent failure were identified separately based on in situ resistance measurement results. Failure analysis has been performed to identify the failure modes of solder joint with and without the presence of compressive loading. A finite element based thermal-fatigue life prediction model for SAC305 solder joint under compressive loading was also developed to understand the thermal-fatigue crack behaviors of solder joint and successfully validated with the experimental results.


Author(s):  
Jian Su ◽  
Tingting Tang ◽  
Ruixin Lu ◽  
Peng Yu

Abstract In the present study, we numerically investigate the thermal lagging behavior on the hard disk drives in heat-assisted magnetic recording systems via the optical absorption model. The influences of overcoats, laser radius, relative scanning speed, interfacial thermal resistance, and the heat sink layer on the thermal lagging behavior are studied in detail. It is found that the thermal lagging distance, i.e., the horizontal distance between the location of the maximum temperature and the laser center, increases with an increment of speed and/or radius of the laser spot. The overcoats, the interfacial thermal resistance, and the heat sink layer have negligible effects on the lagging distance. Thus, the multilayered disk can be simplified as a single-layer disk for investigating thermal lagging distance. Meanwhile, the horizontal temperature gradient varies with these factors. Different overcoats result in different horizontal temperature gradient owing to the difference of in-plane thermal diffusivity. A laser with a smaller radius or a slower speed leads to a higher horizontal temperature gradient. The thermal resistance influences the horizontal temperature gradient insignificantly. This study may provide useful information for the design of hard disk drives for heat-assisted magnetic recording technologies.


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