Performance evaluation of a thermoelectric cooler using finite element analysis

The paper presents the results of investigations on heat transfer in electronic packaging using thermoelectric cooling. The elements used for cooling, the so called Péltier elements, acts as a heat pump and transfer the heat between the “cold” zone and the “hot” zone. The thermoelectric elements are normally not used as stand alone devices, but integrated in a cooling module which includes the thermoelectric element, the heat source and the heatsink or fan. The balance between the ability of the cooler element to transport the heat and the self heating and heat spreading due to thermal transfer will determine the factor of merit for a certain cooling assembly. The new approach is the use of finite element software features in order to include thermoelectric specific effects by performing a thermal-electric coupled analysis. This offers the possibility to determine the efficiency parameters for the whole system in only one simulation environment.