Heat driven cooling of portable electronics using thermoelectric technology

A novel ldquoshunt attachrdquo configuration for chip-scale thermoelectric (TE) generation of electric power from microprocessor waste heat is described, modeled, and parametrically analyzed. The generated electricity is used to drive a cooling fan that convectively cools the chip. A prototype using heat-driven cooling through off-the-shelf TE modules and a low-voltage fan was built and successfully applied to the thermal management of a high-power mobile processor in a portable equipment form factor.