Clemens J. M.

Lasance
http://electronics-cooling.com/2005/11/advances-in-high-performance-cooling-for-electronics

Advances in High-Performance Cooling for

Electronics
November 1, 2005 Clemens J. M. Lasance, Blowers / Fans / Filters, Coolers, Design, Heat Pipes, Heat
Sinks, Liquid Cooling, Materials, Compounds, Adhesives, Substrates, Number 4, Semiconductor, TECs, Test
& Measurement, TIMs, Volume 11Cooling Methods

Introduction
The need for new cooling techniques is driven by the continuing increases in power
dissipation of electronic parts and systems. In many instances standard techniques
cannot achieve the required cooling performance due to physical limitations in heat
transfer capabilities. These limitations are principally related to the limited thermal
conductivity of air for convection and copper for conduction.

Figure 1 shows a comparison of various cooling techniques as a function of the

attainable heat transfer in terms of the heat transfer coefficient. To accommodate a heat
flux of 100 W/cm2 at a temperature difference of 50 K requires an effective heat transfer
coefficient (including a possible area enlarging factor) of 20,000 W/m2K.

From Figure 1 it can be concluded that there will be a need for liquid cooling in the
future of thermal management. This article briefly discusses a number of promising
thermal management technologies that are emerging for possible electronics
applications.

Figure 1. Heat transfer coefficient attainable with natural convection, single-phase liquid
forced convection and boiling for different coolants [1].
Conduction and Heat Spreading
In all cooling applications, heat from the device heat sources, must first travel via
thermal conduction to the surfaces exposed to the cooling fluid before it can be rejected
to the coolant. For example, as shown in Figure 2, heat must be conducted from the
chip to the lid to the heat sink before it can be rejected to the flowing air. As can be seen
thermal interface materials (TIMs) may be used to facilitate thermal conduction from the
chip to the lid and from the lid to the heat sink. In many cases heat spreaders in the
form of a flat plate with good thermal conductivity may be placed between the chip and
lid to facilitate spreading of the heat from the chip to the lid or heat sink. Vapor
chambers are also used to spread heat from a concentrated chip or module heat source
to a larger heat sink.

Figure 2. Chip package with thermal conduction path to heat sink via TIMs.For high-
power applications, the interface thermal resistance becomes an important issue. Direct
soldering (e.g., reflow soldering) is often difficult, certainly when copper is used because
of the large CTE mismatch between Cu and Si. However, a few promising materials are
entering the market. Diamond-filled greases have been tested to have an effective
thermal conductivity of over 20 W/mK; however, the vendor claimed 60 W/mK [2]. Even
more interesting is a nanostructured foil, which utilizes a very fast exothermic reaction to
create a soldered connection virtually at room temperature [3]. Extensive long-term
reliability studies are in progress [4].

Heat spreading is a very effective way of mitigating the need for sophisticated high-heat
flux cooling options. Of course, to be effective the benefits of decreasing the heat flux
density by increasing the area should outweigh the penalty of adding another layer that
the heat must be conducted across. This is an optimization problem as discussed
below. The options for advanced heat spreading solutions are two-fold:

 Novel materials such as carbonaceous materials, metal-matrix composites, ceramic

matrix composites (e.g., diamond-particle-reinforced silicon carbide), or ScD (Skeleton
 cemented Diamond), all of them with much higher thermal conductivities than copper,
much less weight and tunable CTEs [5].
 Novel heat spreader technologies such as Novel Concept’s Isoskin [6] and Enerdyne’s
Polara [55] that claim effective thermal conductivities that compete with diamond.

By applying heat spreaders cooling methods such as loop heat pipes and low-flow liquid
cooling may be augmented to accommodate higher heat flux applications. Figure 3
provides a graph showing heat spreading results for a 300 W heat source of 2 cm 2 area
as a function of thermal conductivity, thickness and cooling boundary condition (i.e.,
heat transfer coefficient). Looking at the results it becomes obvious that heat spreading
is a complex phenomenon. This is because the conduction and convection effects
cannot be separated and the two effects compete: increasing the thickness increases
the through-plane resistance but decreases the in-plane thermal resistance. For
example, comparing the two upper curves with the two lower curves, their order is
changed. The results also show that it is very well possible to use heat spreaders to
decrease the required fluid-side heat transfer coefficient to easily manageable values,
below 5000 W/m2K, which could be fairly easily realized with hydrofluoroether (HFE)
cooling fluids. For example, using an 8 x 8 cm2 heat spreader of some advanced
composite with a k of 800 W/mK and a thickness of 4 mm results in a temperature rise
of 40°C with a heat transfer coefficient of only 2500 W/m2K.

Figure 3. Example of effect of thickness on heat spreading for various heat source
areas, material thermal conductivities, and heat transfer coefficients (A in cm 2, K in
w/mK, h in W/m2K).
Air Cooling
It is generally acknowledged that traditional air-cooling techniques are about to reach
their limit for cooling of high-power applications. With standard fans a maximum heat
transfer coefficient of maybe 150 W/m2K can be reached with acceptable noise levels,
which is about 1 W/cm2 for a 60°C temperature difference. Using ‘macrojet’
impingement, theoretically we may reach 900 W/m2K, but with unacceptable noise
levels. Non-standard fans/dedicated heat sink combinations for CPU cooling are
expected to have a maximum of about 50 W/cm2, which is a factor of 10 higher than
expected 15 years ago. However, some new initiatives have emerged to extend the
useful range of air-cooling such as piezo fans, ‘synthetic’ jet cooling and ‘nanolightning’.

Piezo Fans
Piezoelectric fans are low power, small, relatively low noise, solid-state devices that
recently emerged as viable thermal management solutions for a variety of portable
electronics applications including laptop computers and cellular phones. Piezoelectric
fans utilize piezoceramic patches bonded onto thin, low frequency flexible blades to
drive the fan at its resonance frequency. The resonating low frequency blade creates a
streaming airflow directed at electronics components. A group at Purdue reports up to a
100% enhancement over natural convection heat transfer [7].

‘Synthetic’ Jet Cooling

An approach using periodic microjets coined ‘synthetic jets’ has initially been studied by
Georgia Institute of Technology and is being commercialized by Innovative Fluidics.
Due to the pulsating nature of the flow, synthetic jets introduce a stronger entrainment
than conventional-steady jets of the same Reynolds number and more vigorous mixing
between the wall boundary layers and the rest of the flow. One of the test set-ups is
shown in Figure 4. A synthetic jet entrains cool air from ambient, impinges on the top
hot surface and circulates the heated air back to the ambient through the edges of the
plate. A radial counter current flow is created in the gap between the plates with hot air
dispersed along the top and ambient air entrained along the bottom surface. The idea
was further explored by the development of flow actuators using MEMS technology [8].
Figure 4. Flow dynamics of normal jet impingement with an oscillating diaphragm.

‘Nanolightning’
An interesting new approach to increasing the heat transfer coefficient called
‘nanolightning’ is being pursued by researchers from Purdue . It is based on ‘micro-
scale ion-driven airflow’ using very high electric fields created by nanotubes. As shown
in Figure 5, the ionized air molecules are moved by another electric field, thereby
inducing secondary airflow [9]. Cooling a heat flux level of 40 W/cm 2 has been reported.
The technology is being commercialized through a start-up company (Thorrn).

Figure 5. ‘Nanolightning’ sketch.

Liquid Cooling
The widely known heat transfer guru John Lienhard [10] once raised the question: “How
much heat could possibly be carried away by boiling?” The answer is: 2000
kW/cm2 (based on water molecules turning into vapor without influencing each other).
The highest reported experimental value is over 200 kW/cm 2, using high velocities and
high pressures. Some commercially available microcoolers can handle about 1
kW/cm2 so there is some room for improvement. Liquid cooling for application to
electronics is generally divided into the two main categories of indirect and direct liquid
cooling. Indirect liquid cooling is one in which the liquid does not directly contact the
components to be cooled. Direct liquid cooling brings the liquid coolant into direct
contact with the components to be cooled. The following sections discuss the categories
of indirect liquid cooling in the form of heat pipes and cold plates and direct liquid
cooling in the form of immersion cooling and jet impingement.
Heat Pipes
Heat pipes provide an indirect and passive means of applying liquid cooling. They are
sealed and vacuum pumped vessels that are partially filled with a liquid. The internal
walls of the pipes are lined with a porous medium (the wick) that acts as a passive
capillary pump. When heat is applied to one side of the pipe the liquid starts
evaporating. A pressure gradient exists causing the vapor to flow to the cooler regions.
The vapor condenses at the cooler regions and is transported back by the wick
structure, thereby closing the loop. Heat pipes provide an enhanced means of
transporting heat (e.g., under many circumstances much better than copper) from a
source to a heat sink where it can be rejected to the cooling medium by natural or
forced convection. The effective thermal conductivity of a heat pipe can range from
50,000 to 200,000 W/mK [11], but is often much lower in practice due to additional
interface resistances. The performance of heat pipes scales from 10 W/cm2 to over 300
W/cm2. A simple water-copper heat pipe will on average have a heat transfer capacity of
100 W/cm2. An example of a typical application of a heat pipe for an electronics cooling
application is given in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Examples of heat pipes used in a notebook application.Although there is

virtually no limit to the size of a heat pipe, the effectiveness of a heat pipe decreases
with decreasing lengths. For heat pipes with a length less than about 1 cm the
performance of a solid piece of metal (e.g., copper) is often comparable. They are very
effective as efficient heat conductors to transport heat to locations were more area is
available. 2D heat spreaders (otherwise known as vapor chambers) based on the heat
pipe principle can achieve much higher effective thermal conductivities than copper. For
example, a thin planar heat spreader has been developed that is claimed to have a
thermal performance greater than diamond [12].
Besides standard heat pipes, loop heat pipes (LHP) such as those shown in Figure 7
are attracting increased attention. LHPs have the advantage over conventional heat
pipes that the vapor and liquid paths are separated enabling much better performance
of the liquid return loop. For example, Kim et al. [12] showed the ability to accommodate
a heat flux of 625 W/cm2.

Figure 7. Examples of loop heat pipes.

Cold Plates
Liquid-cooled cold plates perform a function analogous to air-cooled heat sinks by
providing an effective means to transfer heat from a component to a liquid coolant.
Unlike heat pipes they may be considered active devices in that liquid is usually forced
through them by the action of a pump. For many years water-cooled cold plates were
used in mainframe computers to cool high-powered multi-chip processor modules.
Vacuum-brazed finstock coldplates are standard practice in defense electronics, and
copper-based superalloy structures are used in high-energy lasers. In 1981, in an effort
to significantly extend cooling capability, Tuckerman and Pease [13] demonstrated a
liquid -cooled microchannel heat sink that removed 790 W/cm 2 with a temperature
increase of 71°C for a 600 ml/min flow rate with a pressure drop of 207 kPa. As a result
of the continuing increases in heat flux at the chip level, microchannel cold plates are
receiving renewed attention.

Microchannels and Minichannels

The term ‘micro’ is applied to devices having hydraulic diameters of ten to several
hundred micrometers, while ‘mini’ refers to diameters on the order of one to a few
millimeters. In many practical cases, the small flow rate within micro-channels produces
laminar flow resulting in a heat transfer coefficient inversely proportional to the hydraulic
diameter. In other words, the smaller the channel, the higher the heat transfer
coefficient. Unfortunately, the pressure drop increases with the inverse of the second
power of the channel width, keeping the mass flow constant, and limiting ongoing
miniaturization in practice.

Garimella and Sobhan [14] published a very good review of the microchannel literature
up to 2000. They concluded, among others, that “Given the diversity in the results in the
literature, a reliable prediction of the heat transfer rates and pressure drops in
microchannels is not currently possible for design applications such as microchannel
heat sinks.” Mudawar [15] reviewed high-heat-flux thermal management schemes,
including ultra-high-heat-fluxes in the range of 1000-100,000 W/cm2. A recent overview
was also provided by Mohapatra and Loikitis [16].

Lee and Vafai [17] compared jet impingement and microchannel cooling for high heat
flux applications. One of their conclusions is that microchannel cooling is more effective
for areas smaller than 7 x 7 cm. Integrated single and two-phase micro heat sinks are
treated by Gillot et al. [18]. They were able to cool about 450 W/cm 2 using both single
and two-phase heat transfer. For two-phase flow the pumping power is about ten times
lower and the required flow rate is considerably lower. Kandlikar and Upadhye [19]
showed enhanced microchannel cooling by using off-set strip fins and a split-flow
arrangement. Cooling of over 300 W/cm2 at 24 kPa is claimed with a flow of 1.5 l/min. A
paper devoted to pumping requirements has been written by Singhal et al. [20]. Useful
graphs compare the performance of a whole range of pumps that could be considered
for microchannel cooling. Colgan et al. [21] at IBM published a practical implementation
of a silicon microchannel cooler (as shown in Figure 8) for high-power chips. They
argued that it is not practical to form the microchannels directly on the chip given the
high cost of high-performance processor chips. Instead, a separate microchannel cold
plate is bonded to the back of the chip. This requires a very low interface thermal
resistance. If the microcooler is based on silicon, a rigid bonding means that silver-filled
epoxies or solder should be used. Power densities in excess of 400 W/cm2 are reported,
for a flow of 1.2 l/min at 30 kPa.
Figure 8. Pictures from IBM paper showing high-performance liquid cooling technology
using microchannels [21].It may be possible to push microchannel heat transfer even
further by utilizing boiling. In addition to offering higher heat transfer coefficients, boiling
convection in microchannels is promising because it requires less pumping power than
single-phase liquid convection to achieve a given heat sink thermal resistance. For the
same heat flux the pressure drops by a factor of 20. A review has been published by
Bergles et al. [22]. A prototype of a 1000 W/cm2 cooling system based on boiling heat
transfer in microchannel heat sinks using a flow rate of 500 ml/min has been described
in [23]. The main practical problem with two-phase flow is its unpredictability. Local heat
transfer coefficients may change appreciably over time leading to local temperature
changes of 10-15 °C [24]. Also backflow of already heated flow due to expansion of
bubbles is observed.

Increasingly, microchannel-like cold plates are becoming commercially available. Mikros

[25] claims 1000 W/cm2K, 14-21 kPa and 0.05 K/W/cm2 for its patented technology in
which the fluid impinges on the surface to be cooled. ACT (Advanced Cooling
Technologies) [26] offers pumped liquid (both single and two-phase) cooling
technologies in addition to loop heat pipes for space applications. Their single-phase
solution (see Figure 9) incorporates a ‘unique oscillating flow heat transfer’ mechanism,
capable of cooling over 1300 W/cm2.
Figure 9. Vendor’s heat spreader and test results.Another company, Cirrus, sells
microchannel high heat flux heat sinks, claiming over 100 W/cm 2 heat flux capability and
reduced pressure drops. Recently another player, iCurie [27], entered the market. They
claim a pumpless microchannel cooling system based on capillary pumping with
separate liquid-vapor loops. The layout can be very flexible, only 300 micrometer thick.
At least 200 W/cm2 can be cooled, with the additional advantage of a negligible effect of
gravity. It is not a heat pipe because the principle of operation is based on flow boiling,
not evaporation. Other companies offering microchannel coolers include Lytron, Novel
Concepts, Curamik, Microcooling Concepts (MC2), and Koolance.

A completely different way of making microchannels is by using metal foams or metal

made porous otherwise. Engineers from Thermacore have described a family of liquid -
cooled heat sinks using porous metal. They accommodated a heat flux of 500 W/cm 2 for
a 50 K difference at a pressure drop of 115 kPa using water [28].

On June 21, 2005, Georgia Tech [29] announced a novel monolithic technique for
fabricating liquid cooling channels onto the backs of high-performance ICs. They also
built a system that would allow the on-chip cooling system to be connected to
embedded fluidic channels built into a printed circuit board.

Electrohydrodynamic and Electrowetting Cooling

As an alternative to a continuous flow set into motion by either temperature differences
or by mechanical means, liquid could also be formed and moved in droplets of nano-to-
milliliter size (see for example a nice demonstration by Nanolytics [30]) by means of
electric fields. Electrowetting on a dielectric film, in which the surface property of a
dielectric film can be modified between hydrophobic and hydrophilic states using an
electric field, can be used to provide the basis for a direct micropumping system.
Electrowetting involves control of the surface tension of a liquid and can cause a droplet
of liquid to bead (as shown in Figure 10) or spread out on the surface depending upon
its surface state.

Figure 10. Water forms a nearly perfect ball, as shown in left photo, suspended on the
tips of tiny blades of nanograss.One of the possible applications is cooling on a micro
scale. The recently published theoretical work of Pamula [31] has shown a possible
configuration based on fast moving droplets under a chip. They showed that with 0.4
ml/min it is theoretically possible to cool 90 W/cm2. Recently Leuven University in
collaboration with Philips Research published two papers on this subject [32, 33]. The
Philips approach differs from the Duke approach in that it concerns an oscillating flow.
At Bell Labs researchers coupled electrowetting with nanostructured superhydrophobic
surfaces (coined ‘nanograss’) to result in dynamically tunable surfaces [34]. One
application is the movement of droplets to cool hot spots; however, no further heat
transfer data are given.

A recent publication discussed another promising development, the application of

electrowetting to liquid metals [35]. The main advantage besides a better heat transfer
capability is the much lower voltage required (2 instead of 50 V). However, no
experimental data have been presented.

The interesting aspect in combining microfluidics with electric control is that when all
sizes scale down to micro scale, the electro/-kinetic/-wetting/-osmotic forces become
comparable to pressure drop forces and therefore control of the liquid motion becomes
easier. Of course, active cooling of a hot surface is one thing, to remove heat from the
heated liquid in a closed loop requires additional heat exchange area.

Liquid Metal Cooling

Of special interest is the work ongoing in the field of liquid metal cooling. Apart from
heat pipes based on liquid metals, mainly for the high-temperature range, an increasing
amount of research is devoted to the use of Ga-Sn-In eutectics that remain liquid down
to minus 19°C. In [36, 37] high-performance liquid metal cooling loops are described
using magnetofluiddynamic pumps, claiming over 200 W/cm2 cooling capacity, using a
flow of 0.3 l/min at 15 kPa. Examples of liquid cooling loops for electronics cooling
application are shown in Figures 11 and 12. Another advantage of liquid metal is its
much lower CTE compared to water and the fact that freezing introduces fewer
problems. Developments to extend the use in cold environments to -40°C are ongoing.

Figure 11. Sketch of liquid metal cooling loop.

Figure 12. Typical configuration of liquid metal cooling loop for mobile applications.

Immersion Cooling
Direct liquid or immersion cooling is a well-established method for accommodating high
heat flux backed by over thirty years of university and industrial research. With natural
convection two-phase flow, generally termed nucleate pool boiling, the critical heat flux
using FC-72 is in the range of 5 to 20 W/cm2. However, much higher heat fluxes up to
100 W/cm2 can be accommodated with surface enhancement of the heat source. Figure
13 illustrates a device submerged in a pool of dielectric liquid. The heat dissipated in the
device produces vapor bubbles that are driven by buoyancy forces into the upper region
of the container, where the vapor condenses and drips back into the liquid pool. One of
the disadvantages of this technique is the need for a liquid compatible with the device.
Most often, water cannot be used because of its chemical and electrical characteristics.
Figure 13. Example of pool boiling (thermosyphon) cooling.

Liquid Jet Impingement

Wang et al. [38] claim a cooling of 90 W/cm2 with a 100°C temperature rise using a flow
rate of only 8 ml/min. Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology studied a closed
loop impingement jet [39]. Cooling of almost 180 W/cm 2 has been realized using water,
using a flow of 0.3 l/min at 300 kPa. The micropump used 7 W to drive it.

At this point it is difficult to say which one is better, microchannels or microjets.

Microchannels are easier to fabricate and implement but the temperature nonuniformity
is larger and the nucleation is more difficult to control. Microjets achieve better cooling
uniformity but more fabrication steps are required and an initial pressure is necessary to
form the jet. An example of a commercial concept for liquid cooling is shown in Figure
14 [40].
Figure 14. Commercially available multiple jet impingement liquid cooling.

Spray Cooling
In recent years spray cooling has received increasing attention as a means of
supporting higher heat flux in electronic cooling applications. Spray cooling breaks up
the liquid into fine droplets that impinge individually on the heated wall. Cooling of the
surface is achieved through a combination of thermal conduction through the liquid in
contact with the surface and evaporation at the liquid-vapor interface. The droplet
impingement both enhances the spatial uniformity of heat removal and delays the liquid
separation on the wall during vigorous boiling.

Spray evaporative cooling with a Fluorinert™ coolant is used to maintain junction

temperatures of ASICs on MCMs in the CRAY SV2 system between 70 and 85°C for
heat fluxes from 15 to 55 W/cm2 [41]. In addition to the CRAY cooling application, spray
cooling has gained a foothold in the military sector providing for improved thermal
management, dense system packaging, and reduced weight [42]. A research group at
UCLA discussed chip-level spray cooling for an RF power amplifier and measured a
maximum heat flux of over 160 W/cm2 [43]. Isothermal Systems Research manufactures
SprayCool products [44].

Spray cooling and jet impingement (as shown in Figure 15) are often considered
competing options for electronic cooling. In general, sprays reduce flow rate
requirements but require a higher nozzle pressure drop.
Figure 15. Illustration of spray and jet impingement cooling.A final method to be
mentioned is inkjet-assisted spray cooling. This method uses existing thermal inkjet
technology. A critical heat flux of 270 W/cm2 is reported [45] using only 3ml/min, with a
COP of 6, meaning that the inkjet pumping power is a factor of 6 lower than the heat
removed.

Solid-State Cooling
A thermoelectric or a Peltier cooler (as shown in Figure 16) is a small electronic heat
pump that has the advantage of no moving parts and silent operation. Thermoelectric
cooling enables cooling below ambient temperature. The coolers operate on direct
current and may be used for heating or cooling by reversing the direction of current flow.
Figure 16. Schematic of simple Peltier cooler.When a positive DC voltage is applied to
the n-type thermoelement, electrons pass from the p- to the n- type thermoelement and
the cold side temperature decreases as heat is absorbed.

The heat absorption (cooling) is proportional to the current and the number of
thermoelectric couples. The main disadvantage is that the heat transferred to the hot
side is greater than the amount of heat pumped by a quantity equal to the Joule heating
(i.e., I2R loss) that takes place in the Peltier elements.

The three most important thermoelectric effects are the Seebeck, Peltier and Thomson
effects. For thermoelectric cooling the Thomson effect can be neglected. The Peltier
coefficient Π and Seebeck coefficient S are related to each other through Π = S�T.
Thermoelectric materials are usually characterized by their figure of merit ZT, defined
by:

whereσ= electrical conductivity

λ = thermal conductivity
T = temperature in absolute units

This equation shows why it is difficult to obtain good thermoelectric materials. A good
thermoelectric material must achieve low thermal conductivity (to prevent heat losses
through heat conduction between the hot and cold side) and a high electrical
conductivity (to minimize Joule heating). Due to the dependence of σ and λ
(Wiedemann-Franz law), it is almost impossible to optimize this ratio for
the electron contribution to the thermal conductivity. Hence, the approach is to reduce
the phonon thermal conductivity without a degradation of the electrical conductivity. The
best materials so far are alloys of Bi2Te3 with Sb2Te3 and Bi2Te3 with Bi2Se3. ZT is of the
order of 1 at room temperature. This value gives a Coefficient of Performance (COP, a
measure for the efficiency) of about 1 (see Figure 17a), which compared to household
refrigerators and air conditioners (COP from 2 to 4), makes thermoelectric cooling
generally not competitive. The same holds for power generation (see Figure 17b).
Figure 17. Comparison of thermoelectric technology with other energy conversion
methods for (a) cooling and (b) power generation [46]. Despite the low efficiency, the
application areas are increasing and include infrared detector cooling, charge coupled
devices (CCDs), microprocessors, blood analyzers, portable picnic coolers. Principal
applications are still accurate control of temperature and cooling below ambient
temperature.
One of the problems with traditional Peltier elements is their limited capability of cooling
heat fluxes over 5-10 W/cm2. Because the cooling density of a Peltier cooler is inversely
proportional to its length, scaling to smaller size is desirable. The material structure
produced by conventional crystal growth techniques for producing bismuth telluride
thermoelectric materials impose significant limitations on thermoelectric element
dimensions due to poor manufacturing yields. This prevents thermoelectric elements
from being made very short. Marlow Industries reported new fine-grain micro-alloyed
bismuth telluride materials that do not suffer the element geometry limitation and can
offer higher performance [47]. Another serious step forward has been realized by
Nanocoolers through a proprietary wafer-scale manufacturing process. It concerns a
monolithic process with thicknesses about 1-2 micrometers (see Figure 18). They claim
a tunable performance of 10 – 1000 W/cm2 with a single stage Δ T of 50-70 K [48].
MicroPelt, a spin-off company from Fraunhofer and Infineon also sells promising thin
film thermoelectrics (see Figure 19). For their near-future products they claim cooling of
160 W/cm2.

Figure 18. Comparison of standard and thin-film Peltier element.

 Figure 19. Thin film Peltier element.A number of other research projects directed at
miniaturizing Peltier elements are worth mentioning. In 2004 Biophan Technologies [49]
signed an agreement with NASA for characterization and joint development of high-
density nanoengineered thermoelectric materials for use with implantable devices. They
anticipate a breakthrough in power generation systems. A French/US consortium
published a paper [50] on the fabrication and modeling of an in-plane thermoelectric
micro-generator. They concluded that a heating power of about 100 mW may be
enough to produce 1 mW of useful electrical power in vacuum, using thin film
technology. A compact thermoelectric device may be able to produce 60 microwatt with
an output voltage of 1.5 V in air. Applied Digital Solutions uses its ThermoLife
thermoelectric power generator to power its implantable chips [51]. It generates 3V, has
a diameter of 9.3 mm and weighs 230 mg. DTS in Germany uses thin film technology
for their Low Power Thermoelectric Generators (LPTGs) [52] that produce a few tens of
microwatts in the volt range for a temperature difference of a few degrees C. The
generators have a mass of 390 mg. Also in Germany, researchers at Dresden
University [53] have found a way to make tiny thermoelectric generators using copper
foil as a template. Antimony-Bismuth thermocouples are electro-deposited and after
adding an epoxy film the copper is etched away. The result is a cheap, flexible and
recycable generator that converts environmental heat into electricity. The growth by
pulsed laser deposition of high-quality thermoelectric cobaltate thin films on silicon has
been reported by Yu et al. [54]. In addition, TEM characterization revealed nearly
perfect crystalline structures of the Ca3Co4O9 film formed on top of an SiOx amorphous
layer, suggesting self-assembly might be a viable technique for cobalt oxide-based
thermoelectrics.

If the application is limited to temperatures above ambient temperature matters are

quite different. Because the heat flow paths of the cooling and the conduction have the
same direction, high-thermal conductivity materials are preferred. Enerdyne’s Polara
heat spreaders are based on this principle [55]. A factor of five improvement compared
to copper is claimed as shown in Figure 20. However, no samples are available as of
July 2005.
 Figure 20. Comparison of effective thermal conductances.

Superlattice and Heterostructure Cooling

For a number of years now, the strategy to improve thermoelectric cooling has taken a
new turn [46] giving hope for the future. On a nano scale level, coherent and incoherent
transport plays an important role in the electron and phonon diffusion. Extensive
research is going on in this field. For example, Venkatasubramanian [56] at RTI
reported ZT values between 2-3 at room temperature obtained with
Bi2Te3/Se2Te3 superlattices. Cooling power density is estimated as high as 700 W/cm2 at
353 K compared to 1.9 W/cm2 in the bulk material (see Figures 21 and 22).
Figure 21. Estimated power density for superlattice devices as a function of current.

Figure 22. Potential COP as a function of ZT with various technologies. THOT refers to
the heat sink temperature.Thin-film related work is also being conducted at the
University of California Santa Cruz, based on SiGe/Si. The most recent paper [57]
quotes a cooling power density of nearly 600 W/cm2 for a temperature difference of 4K
below ambient for a 40 x 40 micrometer size area. The superlattice efforts of RTI are
being commercialized through a spin-off company called Nextreme. Recent information
reveals that despite their claimed value of ZT = 2.4, they are not able to manufacture
production samples with a ZT larger than 1.4. The focus is to reduce the parasitics and
to reduce even further the current 100 micrometer thickness.

However, there is still hope for a serious breakthrough. Very recently, Humphrey and
Linke [58] published a paper called ‘Reversible Thermoelectric Materials’. They argue
that nanostructured materials with sharply peaked electronic density of states (such as
quantum wires) may operate reversibly, challenging the view that thermoelectric devices
are inherently irreversible heat engines. In this case, ZT values could reach a value of
10 at room temperature, much above the value of 5 that is required for economical
adoption of thermoelectric technology for mainstream refrigeration and power
generation.

Thermionic and Thermotunneling Cooling

Thermionic cooling is based on the principle that a high-work-function cathode
preferentially emits hot electrons [46]. Materials available have a work function of 0.7 eV
or higher, which limits the use to the higher temperature ranges (>500 K). Vacuum
thermionic devices based on resonant tunnelling have been proposed more recently
[59]. Cooling capabilities of 20-30°C with kW/cm2 cooling power density can be
achieved. However, since the operating currents for the device are as high as 10 5A/cm2,
effects such as Joule heating at the metal-semiconductor contact resistance and
reverse heat conduction have limited the experimental cooling results to <1°C.

Devices based on quantum tunnelling through a small gap are being commercialized
[60]. The spacing between the cathode and the anode should be of the order of 10 nm
providing quite an engineering challenge. Much larger cooling power than
thermoelectric superlattice coolers are predicted by Hishinuma et al. [61] (e.g.10
kW/cm2 for 50 K cooling at room temperature). Recently a study has been devoted to
their potential use as energy scavenging or power conversion devices [62].
Unfortunately, the conclusion is that a gap an order of magnitude lower must be
achieved to be of interest for these application fields. Even more worrying is another
recent study [63] showing that contrary to the results of Hishinuma only about 16
W/cm2 can be reached with a Δ T of 40°C, while the maximum COP is only 0.25. More
or less the same conclusion can be drawn from a paper presented at THERMINIC
2005, September 27-30 [64]. Herein, some weaknesses in prior studies are discussed
and it is clear from the conclusions that nanogap solutions without significant
improvements in lower work function materials have no future.

Phase Change Materials and Heat Accumulators

Phase change materials are successfully used as heat-storing materials for air
conditioning, cool boxes, efficient fire-retarding powders, as functional materials for self-
heating insoles for boots and many other industrial applications. Their use for
electronics thermal management is limited to applications where time-dependent
phenomena play a role. For example, reference [65] discusses the use of phase change
materials as compared to copper for use in a power semiconductor unit.
Chemical heat accumulators should also be mentioned. For example, the use of
composite materials based on granulated open-porous matrix filled with a hygroscopic
substance can be seen as a new approach to accumulate heat [66]. The advantage is a
significant increase in the heat that can be stored as compared to sensible heat and
latent heat. For example, for a 100°C temperature rise copper absorbs 40 kJ/kg.
Evaporation of water is associated with an absorption of 2260 kJ/kg. The enthalpy of a
reversible chemical reaction can reach a value of 7000 kJ/kg. A principal advantage of
reversible chemical reactions for heat accumulation is their ability to store the
accumulated energy for a long time, if the reaction is controlled by the presence of
either a catalyst or a reagent. Hence, the major applications are in the field of summer-
winter heat storage for buildings, etc. Chemical heat accumulators could potentially be
used for outdoor electronic applications when a night-day rhythm is present.

Conclusions
A number of approaches show interesting industrial potential for the cooling of high-
power electronics. This prospect is attested to by the number of small companies that
are entering the market. For example, there are now companies engaged in the
development and commercialization of microchannels, spray cooling, synthetic jets, thin
film Peltier elements. For heat flux densities up to and maybe even beyond 50
W/cm2 air-cooling may remain the cooling option of choice. For heat fluxes over 100
W/cm2, some form of liquid-cooling appears to be the most viable option. Several
papers have demonstrated solutions that may be industrially feasible for application in
the range between 500 and 1000 W/cm2. Considering the range of efforts underway to
extend conventional cooling technologies, as well as develop new ones, the future
seems bright for accommodating high-heat flux applications.

(Note: We deemed it instructive to include examples of commercially-available thermal

solutions. However, it should be clearly stated that we do not intend to promote any of
the mentioned products. Finally, we have tried to cover the state-of-the-art as known to
us. However, given the broadness of the field, we may have overlooked some important
new developments for which we apologize.)

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