Analysis of a Thermoelectric Cooler With Non-Uniform Heating

This paper discusses a methodology for incorporating the behavior of a thermoelectric cooling module in a finite element model of an electronic chip module. A background discussion of thermoelectric cooling is provided followed by a discussion of algebraic solutions for either chip temperature or allowable power on a uniformly powered multi-chip module. The basis and method of implementing an integrated thermoelectric-conduction model in ANSYS is presented. Example calculations are presented and discussed for a thermoelectrically cooled non-uniformly powered MCM. A “quasi-superposition” approach combining results obtained by 1-D algebraic solutions with thermoelectric cooling, with ANSYS results without thermoelectric cooling is also discussed. This approach offers a means to estimate the chip temperatures on an MCM cooled by a thermoelectric module without the need to actually build a detailed and time consuming finite element model of the thermoelectric module.