New technology for thermoelectric cooling

Author

Bass, John C. ; Allen, Daniel T. ; Ghamaty, Saeid ; Elsner, Norbert B.

Author_Institution

Hi-Z Technol. Inc, San Diego, CA, USA

fYear

2004

fDate

9-11 Mar 2004

Firstpage

18

Lastpage

20

Abstract

Thermoelectric coolers in use today have a coefficient of performance (COP) of only about 0.5. This compares to COPS of larger scale machines, such as air conditioners and refrigerators at levels of 3.0 to 5.0. For electronic component cooling there is a new thermoelectric technology emerging for improved efficiency. This paper discusses this new technology which is multi-layer quantum well (MLQW) thermoelectrics, that should increase by four or five times the COP of present thermoelectric coolers used in electronic cooling applications. It also details and updates the experimental work in MLQW thermoelectric materials and will detail the supporting analysis of the predicted higher performance cooling. A specific example of an electronic cooling module configuration is presented.

Keywords

Peltier effect; cooling; quantum well devices; thermal management (packaging); thermoelectric conversion; air conditioners; coefficient of performance; electronic component cooling; multi-layer quantum well thermoelectrics; refrigerators; thermoelectric cooling; Bismuth; Conducting materials; Electronic components; Electronics cooling; Power generation; Semiconductor materials; Tellurium; Temperature; Thermal conductivity; Thermoelectricity;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Semiconductor Thermal Measurement and Management Symposium, 2004. Twentieth Annual IEEE

ISSN

1065-2221

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8363-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/STHERM.2004.1291295

Filename

1320446