Holmes, Kevin MEAM 503 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA December 4, 2013

Thermoelectric coolers for microprocessors in portable consumer electronics Kevin J. Holmes Abstract: When applied to heat-generating microprocessor circuits, thermoelectrics are uniquely poised to significantly reduce the energy intensity of cooling vital components without any additional moving parts. They can generate electricity to power a fan using heat that would have been lost, or they can consume electricity to more efficiently and selectively cool certain areas. Since the initial concept of this application was patented in 1995, great strides have been made to increase the capabilities of these systems. Though these systems still only demonstrate modest cooling performance in real world test situations, these technologies will hold greater promise in the near future. Introduction
The vast majority of inefficiency in any power-related system results from the dissipation of valuable energy to the environment as heat. But in some cases, as with electronics, the waste heat is intentionally dissipated to the environment in order to keep integrated circuits and other powerful microprocessors cool during operation. This is because the performance of virtually all electronic components (including transistors, capacitors, resistors, and the like) in devices such as laptops degrades exponentially with increasing temperature. Indeed, the energy cost of cooling many high-powered circuitry components can approach or even exceed the energy cost of running the components themselves [Chowdhury, 2009]. This energy cost is getting even steeper as microprocessors are becoming more and more powerful at an increasing rate. Thermoelectric technologies offer a possible solution for dealing with the increased heat removal demands while allowing some energy to be regained in the process. The technologies, often referred to as thermoelectric coolers (TECs), are extremely attractive for this particular application because they contain no additional moving parts, can be scaled to fit the dimensions of most modern electronics, and generate virtually no noise that could risk interfering with sensitive electronics. Though the technology itself is relatively mature, its use in notebook computers only began in the past decade. Scientists have yet to fully develop thermoelectric cooling for commercial electronic applications due to significant barriers in performance that have yet to be overcome. Among these barriers are very low coefficients of performance, overheating of CPUs due to high TEC resistivities, and low or negative net power output. In addition, there exists the inherent challenge of integrating nanoscale materials into microscale devices 1

Holmes, Kevin and packaged macroscale systems [Chowdhury et al, 2009]. Fortunately, recent strides in architecture, fabrication techniques, and material choices have brought renewed interest in TECs for portable electronic applications.

Brief Technological Overview

The operation of TECs is based upon the Seebeck and Peltier effects, both of which were discovered in the 19th century within 15 years of each other, and both of which rely on the same basic thermoelectric properties. When an n-doped conductor and a p-doped conductor are contacted with a cold surface and a hot surface as shown in Figure 1, the materials will behave slightly differently. Particles tend to spend more time on the cold side of the conductors than on the warm side due to the manner in which thermal diffusion occurs on a sub-atomic scale. This creates an opposite potential in each of the conductors due to the fact that one is n-type (more electrons than holes) and the other is p-type (more holes than electrons). The net result is that a temperature gradient with two different types of conductors arranged in the manner shown in the figure will always correspond to a voltage gradient across the leads, which in turn results in the flow of current. Though these two effects have this correspondence in common, the major difference is the cause and effect of the phenomenon we observe. In 1821 Seebeck noticed that the existence of a temperature gradient between the hot side and the cold side of the thermoelectric device would generate a current I through the leads. It was not until 1834 when the opposite phenomenon was noticed by Peltier, where applying a current I actually removes heat from the cold side and generates heat at the hot side. Researchers have experimented with using both the Seebeck effect and the Peltier effect to cool portable electronics. Using the Seebeck effect, a temperature gradient between the hot circuitry and room temperature will generate a current that can be used to run a fan to cool the system. Conversely, applying a current directly to the thermoelectric device can remove heat from the hot circuit component using the Peltier effect.

Results - Initial Concept and Performance

Edward Suski filed the first patent relating to this specific application of thermoelectric technology [Suski 1995]. His design proposed the use of the Seebeck effect to generate electrical energy from the temperature gradient between the heat sink and the semiconductor device, and to run a close2

Holmes, Kevin proximity fan on said electricity. Though the idea had been in place for some time, the required analysis methods were not implemented until much later to enable researchers to quantify the potential performance of this type of device. In 2005, researchers Yazawa et al developed a model for TECs operating to cool microprocessors based on heat transfer and thermoelectric theory. The model compared the performance of off-the-shelf TECs with conventional computer fan and passive convective cooling arrangements. They were able to then build a prototype TEC unit to gain an understanding of how their model related to actual results. The major findings of Yazawas research are summarized in Figure 2 at left. The group used two separate thermoelectric units (which they labeled A and B) with differing thermal resistances, and used their models to approximate the temperature achieved by each as a function of required heat dissipation. The discontinuity in each represents the transition from passive cooling to active cooling because at lower heat duties, the TEC is not able to generate enough voltage to drive the fan. They found that their proposed model showed very good correlation to the experimental results. However, though the proof of concept was sound, their prototype TEC unit showed moderate cooling at best using then state-of-the-art components. In addition, the TECs do not even begin to generate any active cooling at temperatures lower than 115C, a temperature that is too high for most semiconductor components. This would limit the potential heat load to under 10W, which is too low for many portable technology applications [Solbrekken et al, 2004].

Results - Increasing Allowed Heat Dissipation

In an attempt to expand the useful range of TECs, Solbrekken et al attempted to revisit the design of the TEC itself [Solbrekken, 2004]. According to Solbrekken, the major contributing factor for the inadequate cooling was the trade-off between thermal resistance and operating temperature, as given by the Seebeck Equation ( ), where Z is the figure of merit, is the absolute temperature, k is

the thermal conductivity, R is the electrical resistance, and

is the Seebeck coefficient. A higher thermal

resistance (lower thermal conductivity, k) will lead to a higher figure of merit, and thus better performance. Unfortunately, this will also lead to the damaging high temperatures referenced above. Thus, Solbrekken needed to solve the problem of using a TEC with a high thermal resistance to maximize 3

Holmes, Kevin efficiency while still allowing sufficient heat dissipation to keep the semiconductor temperatures in an operable region. To do this, Solbrekken proposed moving from the traditional TEC architecture, which he called the direct attach design configuration, to the shunt attach configuration, both of which are pictured in Figure 3. Here, heat can also dissipate through a shunted heat sink rather than solely through the TEC, allowing temperature to be better regulated. Solbrekken was also able to conduct a detailed parametric analysis of his design, and was able to conclude that the allowable heat dissipation limit could increase from 10W to closer to 100W. He estimated that even at these higher capacities, the temperature of the system would remain below 85C while generating on the order of 100mW of work. This shows that TEC devices using the Seebeck effect to power a fan may be viable to operate in portable electronics in the near future.

Results - Prolonging Laptop Battery Life

In 2009, Rocha et al were able to build upon the work of previous researchers and actually demonstrate real-world benefits from using the Seebeck cooling method. The test chip was composed of 3700 junctions of Bi2Te3-Sb2Te3 thin-film thermoelectrics, capable of achieving up to 11.1V output voltage under a temperature gradient of 60C. The applied power ranged from 10W to 35W, as is consistent with the requirements of most modern CPUs. They found that the typical battery life of about 5 hours can be extended by about 10 minutes at a thermoelectric efficiency of 3% and a 60C temperature gradient. Furthermore, if this temperature gradient were increased to 75C, they would achieve an efficiency of 3.8%, resulting in a battery life benefit of approximately 20 minutes. This data presents real evidence that the technology can provide tangible power savings that can be passed along to the consumer if thermoelectrics are incorporated into these types of systems.

Results - Targeted Cooling through the Peltier Effect

A major stipulation of high-powered microprocessors is the necessity to provide extremely localized heat removal when and where it is needed. Doing this will greatly reduce power consumption and allow targeted heat removal for highest effectiveness. In addition to using the Seebeck effect, a 4

Holmes, Kevin number of researchers are exploring the additional benefits of using the Peltier Effect to cool circuits requiring location-specific cooling [Chowdhury et al, 2009]. This involves actively sending charge through a thermoelectric device to absorb heat from a hot component and expel it to the cool environment much more efficiently. Chowdhury was able to model their proposed system and develop a nanofabrication process to maximize cooling duty and use of space. A grid of these superlattices was then affixed to a heat spreader, many of which constitute a single test chip. These test chips were then subjected to a heat flux of 42.7 W/cm2 throughout the chip, and 1,250 W/cm2 locally, conditions that mimic those of a real micro-processor. The group found that there was some inherent passive cooling associated with installing the cooling device and not running any current through it, amounting to a temperature drop of approximately 7.6C. This is likely the result of the high surface area spreader dissipating heat to its environment. But in addition to that, Chowdhury was able to show a peak additional active temperature drop of 7.3C with 3 A of current being passed through the TEC. This is quite a significant temperature drop considering the local heat duty requirement of 1,250 W/cm2, which is considered ultra-high. This experiment proves the possibility of using TECs in applications where dynamic localized cooling is required, and conventional fans do not provide adequate cooling or would consume too much power. Some of these applications include DNA and protein assays, portable power electronics such as laptops, and even hybrid or electric vehicle batteries.

Conclusions and Future Outlook

Research in this area is still ongoing, with scientists developing more accurate predictive models and surpassing previous heat dissipation techniques as recently as 2010 [Zhang et al, 2010]. Consumers can now simply order a thermoelectric device from numerous online distributors and wire them into their laptops as a cooling method, if they so choose. However, there are questions surrounding this technology that need to be addressed if it shall ever progress beyond the innovators and early adopters. Chief among these are whether or not the average consumer would be willing to pay for the additional cost of the TEC device if it only translates to a few minutes of noticeable battery life improvements. However, as TEC materials improve and manufacturing costs decrease, these technologies begin to make economic sense in many applications ranging across multiple different electronic devices.

Holmes, Kevin

References
Chowdhury, Ihtesham, et al. (2009) "On-chip cooling by superlattice-based thin-film thermoelectrics." Nature Nanotechnology 4.4: 235-238. <http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v4/n4/full/nnano.2008.417.html> Rocha, R. P., et al. (2009) "An energy scavenging microsystem based on thermoelectricity for battery life extension in laptops." Industrial Electronics. IECON'09. 35th Annual Conference of IEEE. IEEE. Solbrekken, Gary L., Kazuaki Yazawa, and Avram Bar-Cohen. (2004) "Thermal management of portable electronic equipment using thermoelectric energy conversion." Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, 2004. ITHERM'04. The Ninth Intersociety Conference on. IEEE. <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1319185> Suski, E. D. (1995). U.S. Patent No. 5419780A. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Yazawa, Kazuaki, Gary L. Solbrekken, and Avram Bar-Cohen. (2005) "Thermoelectric-powered convective cooling of microprocessors." Advanced Packaging, IEEE Transactions on 28.2: 231239. <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1427846> Zhang, H. Y., Y. C. Mui, and M. Tarin. (2010) "Analysis of thermoelectric cooler performance for high power electronic packages." Applied Thermal Engineering. 30.6-7: 561-568. Print. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359431109003196>.