Development and Prove Out of a Thermoelectric Cooling Scheme to Cool Electronic Components in High Temperature Environments (165 °C)

This paper represents the results of a series of design studies, CAE simulations and empirical tests to determine if an innovative thermoelectric cooling configuration can effectively maintain the temperature of electronic components below an environmental ambient temperature of 165 °C. The configuration employs an insulated container mounted to a thermoelectric cooling module. This configuration can selectively cool a region of components within a larger electronics module.

The container is made of a highly insulative foam material. A copper cooling blanket surrounds the electronics and provides a direct and efficient cooling path for a thermoelectric cooler chip to extract heat. The insulative container prevents parasitic heat drain into the electronic components from the surrounding environment. This approach allows for the use of cheaper electronic components with lower operating temperature ranges for components such as microprocessors, memory and capacitors. Results for a specific thermoelectric cooler chip demonstrated that components could be kept up to 25 -29 °C cooler than the ambient operating environment temperature.