Seminar III

On

A review of Thermoelectric cooling

technology applied in the field of
electronic devices
Presented by: Guided by:
Sachin D Belgaonkar (SYHPE01) Prof. Gavai Sir

Mechanical Engineering Department

JSPM’s IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND RESEARCH, Wagholi
[2018-2019]
Outline
 Introduction
 Thermoelectric coolers
 Literature survey & Literature summary
 Principle of operation
 Construction of TEC & Materials for TEC
 Temperature stability
 TE cooling in electronics
 Multistage TEC & TEC used as electricity generators
 Advantages & Disadvantages of TEC
 Applications
 References
Introduction
 Electronic devices have become a essential pillar of
modern civilization everything from transportation
,infrastructure, machinery, telecommunication, medical,
and many more need electronics.
 But electronic devices have a drawback which is heat
loss. A majority of input power is being lost in form of
heat due the semiconductor nature.
 This heat if not removed causes junction temperature
rise which can lead to performance degradation or
failure of the device
 Electronic thermal management system are broadly
classified as Active and Passive.
Introduction
 Active thermal management system monitor the heat
loss from device w.r.t and adjust the heat dissipation
accordingly to maintain the device temperature within
a specified range suggested by manufacturer
 Passive thermal management system are designed for a
specified heat loss and ambient conditions. It cannot
vary heat dissipation and thus cannot accurately control
the temperature.
 Thermoelectric device is a active thermal management
system which uses peltier effect to take heat from
electronic device to ambient.
Thermoelectric coolers (TEC)
 Thermoelectric cooler uses the Peltier effect to generate
a heat flux at the junction of two different types of
materials.
 Thermoelectric coolers are solid state device i.e they do
not have any moving parts.
 Thermoelectric coolers can control the temperature of
electronic device very accurately by controlling the
amount of current. By reversing the direction of current it
can also used for heating.
 Thermoelectric coolers are very effective in scenario
where accurate temperature control is required and the
ambient conditions is changing drastically.
Literature review
Sr Paper Title, Author
no.
1. Experimental investigation of
thermoelectric cooling for
computer chips
Saleh Al-Shehri, Hamed H. Saber
2. Sensible air cool-warm fan with
thermoelectric module system
development.
S. Wiriyasart , P. Naphon C.
Hommalee
Relevant outcome
Cooling of hotspots in the
electronic device
Analysis of thermoelectric
cooling
Optimum design of
thermoelectric cooling
Heating of electronic
devices
Literature review
Sr Paper Title, Author Relevant outcome
no.
1. Overview of cooling of Thermoelectric generator
thermoelectric devices Cooling
Muhammad Sajid, Ibrahim hasan, Efficiency
Aziz rahman Thermal management
2. Thermoelectric cooling Thermal control for devices
technology applied in the field of with varying heat flux
electronic devices
Yang Cai , Yu Wang , Di Liu
, Fu-Yun Zhao
Literature Summary
 Basic principles of thermoelectric cooling
 Importance of hot-spot cooling
 Active control of temperature
 Analysis of thermoelectric cooling
Principle of operation
 Thermoelectric coolers operate on peltier effect.
 Peltier Effect – When a DC current is applied to two
dissimilar conductors which are joined at both ends it
results in formation of cold & hot junction depending
upon the direction of current flow. This allows
Construction of TEC
 The device has two sides, and when a DC electric
current flows through the device, it brings heat from one
side to the other, so that one side gets cooler while the
other gets hotter.
 The "hot" side is attached to a heat sink so that it remains
at ambient temperature, while the cool side goes below
room temperature
 Two unique semiconductors, one n-type and one p-
type, are used because they need to have different
electron densities
 The semiconductors are placed thermally in parallel to
each other and electrically in series and then joined with
a thermally conducting plate on each side
Construction of TEC
 One side attached to a heat source and other to a heat sink
that convects the heat to ambient.
 The side facing the heat source is considered the cold side
and side facing the heat sink the hot side
Materials for TEC
 The TEC semiconductor material is an alloy of Bismuth
Telluride that has been suitably doped to provide
individual blocks or elements having distinct “N” and “P”
characteristics.
 Thermoelectric materials most often are fabricated by
either directional crystallization from a melt or pressed
powder metallurgy.
 In addition to Bismuth Telluride (Bi2Te3), there are other
thermoelectric materials including Lead Telluride (PbTe),
Silicon Germanium (SiGe), and Bismuth-Antimony (Bi-Sb)
alloys that may be used in specific situations
Materials for TEC
 Figure illustrates the relative performance or Figure-of-
Merit of various materials over a range of
temperatures. It can be seen from this graph that the
performance of Bismuth Telluride peaks within a
temperature range that is best suited for most cooling
applications.
Figure of merit
represents the quality
of performance of
TEC materials

∝
Z=
𝜌𝑘
Analysis for Thermoelectric module and
heat sink
 Modeling of the TEC module which
includes the p and n leg , electrical
conductors(Copper) , Electrical
insulators ( Ceramic)
 Assembly of the above parts as
shown in fig adjacent.
 Model a heat sink to take heat away
from hot side as a single part as
shown in fig.
 Model an airduct for fluid flow and
assembly
 Modeling the external load
Analysis for Thermoelectric module and
heat sink
 In ansys simulation select Fluid
Flow CFX and import model
 Generate mesh for the geometry
 Create named selection
 Set up the model for simulation by
giving input of all necessary
parameters like material
properties, boundary conditions,
air flow conditions, temperatures.
 Click solve and obtain the above
results
 We can see the heat transfer
from cold side to hot side
Temperature stability
 TE cooling provides high degrees of temperature stability
because the amount of cooling it provides is
proportional to the applied current.
 The reported temperature stability of a TE device has
been ±.0003 degrees celcius but considerable effort had
to be used for this level of stability.
 Several factors are involved in the temperature stability:
 The controller and its resolution.
 The response time of the specific cooling assembly
 The response time of the object being cooled.
TE cooling for Electronics
 TE cooling devices are favorable in electronics cooling
systems because of their high reliability, flexibility in
packaging and integration, low weight and ability to
maintain a low junction temperature, even below
ambient temperature.
TE cooling for Electronics
 Typical TE cooling schemes have a TE device attached
to a heat source (the cold side) that transports heat to a
heat sink (the warm side).
 Also, other cooling devices that can fit the tiny spaces
required for electronics cooling, such as, a capillary loop
heat or a miniature scale vapor compression
refrigerator are not commercially available
 Typical TE cooling system have a TE device attached to
a heat source (the cold side) that transports heat to a
heat sink (the warm side).
Multistage TEC’s
 Increasing the number of
stages increases the
coefficient of performance
for a given cold side
temperature.
 The coefficient of
performance of a multistage
module is given by:
1 N
𝜙=[ 1 + ′ -1]-1
𝜙
𝜙 ′ = COP of one stage
N = number of stages
TEC used are electricity generators
 TEC can be used in conjunction with a heat sink
operating on forced convection.
 The heat generated by the electronic device can be
used run the fan for providing forced air flow over heat
sink. This will increase the efficiency of overall unit.
 Also when the heat loss from the device increase
beyond the thermal design power TDP of device the TEC
can be used to provide additional cooling alongwith the
forced air cooled heat sink to control the temperature in
desired range at the expense of efficiency.
 Combined hybrid system can increase the efficiency as
well as maintain the temperature accurately.
Advantages of TEC
 No moving parts make them very reliable;
approximately 105 hrs of operation at 100 degrees
Celsius, longer for lower temps (Goldsmid,1986).
 Ideal when precise temperature control is required.
 Ability to lower temperature below ambient.
 Heat transport controlled by current input.
 Able to operate in any orientation.
 Compact size make them useful for applications where
size or weight is a constraint.
 Ability to alternate between heating and cooling.
 Excellent cooling alternative to vapor compression
coolers for systems that are sensitive to mechanical
vibration.
Disadvantages of TEC
 TEC have very less efficiency typically in the range of 5-
10%.
 Cooling power is very less as compared to other devices
used for cooling
 TEC experience degradation in their performance
overtime due to repeated usage of them.
Applications
 Electronic enclosures
 Laser diodes
 Laboratory instruments
 Temperature baths
 Refrigerators
 Telecommunications equipment
 Temperature control in missiles and space systems
References
 Thermoelectric cooling technology applied in the field of
electronic devices: Updated review on the parametric
investigations and model developments Yang Caia,b,c, Yu
Wangd, Di Liud, Fu-Yun Zhao
 New Optimum Design for Cooling System in Thermoelectric
Thermal Devices Mojtaba. Babaelahi*1, Hamed. Jafari
 Thermoelectric cooling of microelectronic circuits and waste
heat electrical power generation in a desktop personal
computer C.A. Gould∗, N.Y.A. Shammas, S. Grainger, I. Taylor
 Thermoelectric cooling heating unit performance under real
conditions María Ibañez-Puy ⇑, Javier Bermejo-Busto, César
Martín-Gómez, Marina Vidaurre-Arbizu, José Antonio
Sacristán-Fernández
 Experimental and analytical study on thermoelectric self
cooling of devices A. Martínez, D. Astrain*, A. Rodríguez
Thank you