Effect of Thermoelectric and Electrical Properties on the Cooling Performance of a Micro Thermoelectric Cooler

Active cooling has been studied to prevent microprocessor temperature rise due to hot spots, and a micro thermoelectric cooler is a promising candidate for this spot cooling since it can be used to effectively cool the small area near the hot spot. Numerical analysis has been conducted to determine the effect of thermoelectric and electrical properties on the cooling performance of such a micro thermoelectric cooler. In the cooler considered herein, Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 were selected as the n- and p-type thermoelectric materials, respectively. The thermoelectric column considered was 20 μm thick. The coefficient of performance (COP) and cooling rate were the primary factors used to evaluate the performance of the cooler. Although cooling performance varies with thermal conditions such as thermophysical properties and temperature difference, the present study only focuses on the effect of thermoelectric and electrical properties such as the Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity.