An on-chip autonomous thermoelectric energy management system for energy-efficient active cooling

摘要

This paper presents an on-chip thermoelectric (TE) energy management system for energy-efficient on-demand active cooling of integrated circuits. Embedding a TE module (TEM) within the package has shown potential for on-demand cooling of integrated circuits (ICs); however, the additional cooling energy limits the effectiveness of TE coolers (TEC). The proposed on-chip system monitors the IC temperature and provides cooling during critical thermal events by operating the TEM in the Peltier mode. During normal operation, the TEM is operated in the Seebeck mode to harvest the otherwise wasted heat energy generated by the IC and reduce the net cooling energy. A boost regulator harvests energy in an output capacitor and a programmable current source controls the cooling. The design is implemented in a 130nm CMOS test-chip, and tested with an external thermoelectric device.