Thermal management of portable electronic equipment using thermoelectric energy conversion

It has been well established that thermal management of electronic equipment is critical for the continued success of the microelectronics industry. Portable electronic devices, such as notebook computers and cellular telephones, require that the thermal solution be small, light, and energy efficient. Small-scale thermoelectric (TE) technology used to generate electricity from the waste heat of the microprocessor provides an opportunity to de-couple the thermal solution of electronic equipment from battery power. Suski proposed the concept of using a TE module to generate electricity from the waste heat of a microprocessor in a patent. The configuration shown in the patent, referred to here as the ´direct attach´ configuration, does not lend itself to higher power microprocessors, as the thermal resistance for state-of-the-art TE modules is on the order of 15 K/W. This paper proposes an alternate configuration, referred to as the ´shunt attach´ configuration, as a viable solution for using TE generation in the thermal management of portable electronic equipment. The new concept uses an alternate heat path to shunt excess heat away from the TE module. By managing the heat flow paths, sufficient electricity can be generated by using today´s off-the-shelf TE technology to drive a cooling fan.