Peltier cooling systems with high aspect ratio

Abstract

New Peltier semiconductor heat transfer systems are presented herein. In particular, Peltier heat transfer systems of Peltier semiconductor elements of highly unique shape are arranged to bias the cooling side with respect to its size and consequently performance. In effect, a Peltier heat transfer system is created whereby the Peltier called side is greatly reduced in size and the Peltier hot side is greatly expanded in size. Such ‘high aspect ratio’ Peltier systems promote ‘focused’ cooling effect, which is particularly useful in conjunction with high-performance electronic devices having a small footprint. The entire cooling a fact of the Peltier device is brought to the small space approximated by a point. Thus a ‘point’ heat source such as a semiconductor laser are high-performance light emitting diode is more effectively cooled by these systems.

1 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems comprising: 
 at least one semiconductor element pair arranged to yield Peltier effect heat transfer, said semiconductor element pair comprising one ‘P’ type doped semiconductor element and one ‘A’ type doped semiconductor element, each element having a cold end and a hot end, further said element pair being arranged to form a portion of a serial electronic circuit and a portion of a parallel thermal circuit,    an active area thermally coupled to the cold ends of said at least one ‘P’ type doped semiconductor element and one ‘N’ type doped semiconductor element; and    a hot area thermally coupled to the hot ends of said at least one ‘P’ type doped semiconductor element and one ‘N’-type doped semiconductor element,    said hot ends being appreciably larger than said cold ends.    
   
   
       2 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 1 , said cold ends arranged to thermally couple with a single contiguous active area characterized as an annulus or circle, said hot ends arranged to thermally couple with an hot area characterized as a substantially cylindrical element.  
   
   
       3 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 2 , said hot area is fashioned as a heat sink having a high thermal conductivity suitable for transmission of heat from said hot ends to a heat dump.  
   
   
       4 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 4 , heat sink has fins to increase the total surface area exposed to surrounding air and transmits heat into that air.  
   
   
       5 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 2 , said hot area being substantially concentric with said active area.  
   
   
       6 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 1 , said active area is thermally coupled an electronic heat producing system.  
   
   
       7 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 6 , said electronic heat producing system is at least one light emitting diode.  
   
   
       8 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 1 , said active area is formed of a material having a high thermal conductivity.  
   
   
       9 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 1 , said active area is fashioned as a plurality of fields distributed about a planar region.  
   
   
       10 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 9 , said plurality of fields are rectangular areas distributed in an array arrangement.  
   
   
       11 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 10 , said plurality of fields comprise a total area which less than 50% of said hot area.  
   
   
       12 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 9 , said hot area is fashioned as a plurality of fields distributed about a hot plane planar region.  
   
   
       13 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 12 , said hot plane being fashioned of thermally conductive material whereby heat easily passes from hot ends into said hot plane.  
   
   
       14 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 9 , further comprising an arrangement of interconnects to form a serial circuit wherein a plurality of semiconductor element pairs are electrically coupled.  
   
   
       15 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 14 , said interconnects are fashioned as thin metal strips on the cold ends and hot ends of the semiconductor elements.  
   
   
       16 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 9 , said cold plane is characterized as a substrate having low thermal conductivity.  
   
   
       17 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 9 , said hot plane is characterized as a substrate having high thermal conductivity.  
   
   
       18 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 10 , said plurality of fields further having coupled thereto high performance LEDs.  
   
   
       19 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 18 , said LEDs being high lumen output white LEDs.  
   
   
       20 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 10 , said hot plane has a heat sink cooling fin arrangement thermally coupled thereto whereby the surface area of the cooling fin arrangement is effectively larger than the hot plane.  
   
   
       21 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 2  , said cold ends are arranged to thermally couple with a single contiguous active area, said hot ends are arranged to thermally couple with a hot area characterized as a substantially cylindrical element.  
   
   
       22 ) Peltier effect semiconductor heat transfer systems of  claim 21 , said cold sides are characterized as a substrate said active area has high thermal conductivity and low electrical conductivity.