On-Chip Power Generation Using Ultrathin Thermoelectric Generators

Abstract

Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) can significantly improve the net power consumption and battery life of the low power mobile devices or high performance devices by generating power from their waste heat. Recent advancements also show that the ultrathin thermoelectric devices can be fabricated and integrated within a micro-electronic package. This work investigates the power generation by an ultrathin TEG embedded within a micro-electronic package considering several key parameters such as load resistance, chip heat flux, and proximity of the TEG to chip. The analysis shows that the power generation from TEGs increases with increasing background heat flux on chip or when TEGs are moved closer to the chip. An array of embedded TEGs is considered in order to analyze the influence of multiple TEGs on total power generation and conversion efficiency. Increasing the number of TEGs from one to nine increases the useful power generation from 72.9 mW to 378.4 mW but decreases the average conversion efficiency from 0.47% to 0.32%. The average power generated per TEG gradually decrease from 72.9 mW to 42.0 mW when number of TEGs is increased from one to nine, but the total useful power generated using nine TEGs is significant and emphasize the benefits of using embedded TEGs to reduce net power consumption in electronics packages.