3D Compact Model of Packaged Thermoelectric Coolers

Abstract

Hotspots on a microelectronic package can severely hurt the performance and long-term reliability of the chip. Thermoelectric coolers (TECs) can provide site-specific and on-demand cooling of hot spots in microprocessors. We develop a 3D compact model for fast and accurate modeling of a TEC device integrated inside an electronic package. A 1D compact model of a TEC is first built in SPICE and validated for steady-state and transient behavior against a finite-volume model. The 1D compact model of the TEC is then incorporated into a 3D compact model of a prototype electronic package. The results from the compact model for the packaged TEC are in good agreement with a finite-volume based model, which confirms the compact model's ability to accurately model the TEC's interaction with the package. Analysis of packaged TECs using this 3D compact model shows that (i) moving TECs closer to the chip results in faster response time and an increase in maximum cooling, (ii) high thermal contact resistance within the thermoelectric cooler significantly degrades performance of the device, and (iii) higher convective heat transfer coefficients (HTC) at the heat spreader surface increase steady-state cooling but decrease maximum transient cooling.

Peltier Supercooling with Isosceles Current Pulses: Cooling an Object with Internal Heat Generation

“…Resistors are used in the x, y and z direction to capture three-dimensional thermal resistance and temperature gradients within the physical components. This 3D arrangement was modified from Sullivan et al 65 The model of the cooled object consists of 125 nodes. There are five nodes in the X dimension, 5 nodes in the Y dimension and 5 in the Z dimension.…”

Peltier Supercooling with Isosceles Current Pulses: A Response Surface Perspective

“…In this model, there was good agreement with other models 14 and this model is the basis of the work herein. Sullivan et al 39 compared his SPICE model results with a finite volume Fluent model. There was good agreement of results between the two models, however the SPICE model was up to 430% faster.…”

Investigation on the impacts of thickness on thermal stress on Thermoelectric materials MoSi2 and Mo5SiB2

“…Though, the means of transportation of charge carriers in such intricate resources is entirely unstated [5], capabilities of such nano structured materials are not easy in synthesis in addition to fall short in meeting industrial wishes. Currently, researchers have focused in optimizing the performance of device, like Thomson-effect [6,7], contact resistance [8][9][10], heat exchanger [11,12], leg numbers [13] and geometry [14,15]. Those most favorable design techniques [16][17][18][19] have technically grown with full-fledge.…”