Compact, High Performance Thermelectric Modules for Thermal Management of Electronic Packaging

As electronic devices become smaller, faster and more complex, their need for high heat dissipation turns into a pressing concern. Cumbersome cooling systems such as large heat sinks, forced air cooling and fluid cooling are impractical and need to be replaced by alternative, small size, light weight thermal management techniques. Particularly promising in this respect are thermoelectric modules due to their relatively light weight and potential for high heat dissipation. However, up to now, conventional thermoelectric materials and fabrication techniques have been costly and incapable of producing small size, high efficiency thermoelectric modules. This proposal suggests a novel set of composite thermoelectric materials as well as suitable designs that can be used to fabricate compact, high performance, light weight thermoelectric modules. The advantages of these novel thermoelectric materials are low cost, high productivity, low temperature process and capable of producing small size, high efficiency thermoelectric modules. These modules can be fabricated as individual thermoelectric modules as well as integrated into the electronic or other component that requires cooling to gain maximum effectiveness with minimum additional space. The fabrication techniques that will be used to fabricate high performance, compact thermoelectric modules are already established and will be modified for this application.