Thermoelectric (TE) coolers work on the Seebeck effect, where an electrical current is used to drive a heat flux against a temperature gradient. They have applications for active cooling of electronic devices but have low coefficients of performance (COP < 1) at high heat fluxes (>10 W/cm2, dT = 15 K). While the active elements (TE material) in a TE cooling module lead to cooling, the nonactive elements, such as the electrical leads and headers, cause joule heating and decrease the coefficient of performance. A conventional module design uses purely horizontal leads and vertical active elements. In this work, we numerically investigate trapezoidal leads with angled active elements as a method to improve cooler performance in terms of lower parasitic resistance, higher packing fraction and higher reliability, for both supperlattice thin-film and bulk TE materials. For source and sink side temperatures of 30 °C and 45 °C, we show that, for a constant packing fraction, defined as the ratio of active element area to the couple base area, trapezoidal leads decrease electrical losses but also increase thermal resistance. We also demonstrate that trapezoidal leads can be used to increase the packing fraction to values greater than one, leading to a two times increase in heat pumping capacity. Structural analysis shows a significant reduction in both tensile and shear stresses in the TE modules with trapezoidal leads. Thus, the present work provides a pathway to engineer more reliable thermoelectric coolers (TECs) and improve their efficiency by >30% at a two times higher heat flux as compared to the state-of-the-art.
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December 2014
Research-Article
Design of Thermoelectric Modules for High Heat Flux Cooling
Ram Ranjan,
e-mail: ranjanr1@utrc.utc.com
Ram Ranjan
1
United Technologies Research Center
,411 Silver Ln
,East Hartford, CT 06108
e-mail: ranjanr1@utrc.utc.com
1Corresponding author.
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Joseph E. Turney,
Joseph E. Turney
United Technologies Research Center
,411 Silver Ln
,East Hartford, CT 06108
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Charles E. Lents,
Charles E. Lents
United Technologies Research Center
,411 Silver Ln
,East Hartford, CT 06108
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Virginia H. Faustino
Virginia H. Faustino
United Technologies Research Center
,411 Silver Ln
,East Hartford, CT 06108
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Ram Ranjan
United Technologies Research Center
,411 Silver Ln
,East Hartford, CT 06108
e-mail: ranjanr1@utrc.utc.com
Joseph E. Turney
United Technologies Research Center
,411 Silver Ln
,East Hartford, CT 06108
Charles E. Lents
United Technologies Research Center
,411 Silver Ln
,East Hartford, CT 06108
Virginia H. Faustino
United Technologies Research Center
,411 Silver Ln
,East Hartford, CT 06108
1Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Electronic and Photonic Packaging Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF ELECTRONIC PACKAGING. Manuscript received July 21, 2013; final manuscript received July 27, 2014; published online September 19, 2014. Assoc. Editor: Y. C. Lee.
J. Electron. Packag. Dec 2014, 136(4): 041001 (8 pages)
Published Online: September 19, 2014
Article history
Received:
July 21, 2013
Revision Received:
July 27, 2014
Citation
Ranjan, R., Turney, J. E., Lents, C. E., and Faustino, V. H. (September 19, 2014). "Design of Thermoelectric Modules for High Heat Flux Cooling." ASME. J. Electron. Packag. December 2014; 136(4): 041001. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4028118
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