Module for cooling semiconductor device

Abstract

A module for cooling a heat generating element comprising a heat receiving plate thermally connected to at least one heat generating element; a heat transfer device one end portion of which is thermally connected to the heat receiving plate and other end portion of which is thermally connected to a heat dissipating plate; a thermoelectric cooler one face of which is thermally connected to one face of the heat dissipating plate; a first heat sink thermally connected to other face of the heat dissipating plate; and a second heat sink thermally connected to other face of said thermoelectric cooler.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 985,412, filed on 11 Nov. 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The Ser. No. 10 / 985,412 application claimed the benefit of the date of the earlier filed Provisional Application No. 60 / 552,149 filed 11 Mar. 2004. Priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) is also hereby claimed from Japanese Application No. 2004-221766, filed 29 July 2004, the disclosure of which is also incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a cooling device for cooling an element to be cooled having a high heat generating density such as semiconductor elements using a thermoelectric cooler (which is also referred to as TEC), for example a Peltier cooler.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Recently, an electronic appliance includes high power and densely integrated components such as microprocessor there...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a module for cooling a semiconductor element that improves cooling efficiency by enlarging the temperature difference between the heat sink and the cooling system. This is achieved by using a heat pipe to transfer heat from the heat generating element to the heat receiving / spreading device, which results in a smaller heat absorbed by the thermoelectric cooler and lower power consumption. The module includes a heat receiving plate, a heat transfer device, a thermoelectric cooler, and a heat sink. The heat receiving plate can be thermally connected to the heat generating element, and the heat transfer device can be connected to the heat receiving plate or the heat dissipating plate. The module can be designed with a wide design choice and can be downsized and noise-reduced.

Problems solved by technology

Since the microprocessor is densely integrated and processes computing and control at high speed, a large amount of heat is generated.

Furthermore, recently, since a semiconductor device processing high speed signal generates larger amount of heat, the above mentioned heat pipe does not fully cool the device.

However, there are the following problems in the conventional method in which the lower temperature side of the Peltier device is attached to the heat generating source while the higher temperature side of the Peltier device is attached to the heat sink.

When the heat from the heat generating source (for example, CPU) increases, the heat absorbing of the Peltier device (TEC) is not sufficient so that the thermal resistance of the cooling module rises.

More specifically, it becomes difficult to enlarge the temperature difference between the heat sink and the cooling air, thus deteriorating the cooling efficiency.

It becomes difficult to sufficiently cool the heat generating source by the thermoelectric device, when the heat from the CPU is over 120 W under the condition of a spreading resistance of 0.10 K / W in the heat receiving-spreading device.

However, it is difficult to control a thickness of the thermal grease, leading to a large variation of the contact resistance between components.

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