Thermoelectric cooler application in electronic cooling

This study addresses thermoelectric cooler (TEC) applications in the electronic cooling. The cold side temperature (T-c) and temperature difference between TEC cold and hot sides (DeltaT=T-h-T-c, T-h=temperature of hot side of TEC) were used as the parameters. The cooling capacity, junction temperature, coefficient of performance (COP) of TEC and the required heat sink thermal resistance at the TEC hot side were computed. The results indicated that the cooling capacity could be increased as T-c increased and DeltaT was reduced. The maximum cooling capacity and chip junction temperature obtained were 207 W and 88 degreesC, respectively. The required heat sink thermal resistance on TEC hot side was 0.054degreesC/W. Larger cooling capacity and higher COP could be obtained when the TEC was operated in the enforced regimes (DeltaT<0). However, TEC performance was restricted by the T-c values and heat sink thermal resistance at the TEC hot side. A microchannel heat sink using water or air as the coolant was demonstrated to meet the low thermal heat sink resistance requirement for TEC operated at maximum cooling capacity conditions. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.