Heterostructure integrated thermionic refrigeration
- 22 November 2002
- conference paper
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- p. 636-640
- https://doi.org/10.1109/ict.1997.667610
Abstract
Thermionic emission in heterostructures is investigated for integrated cooling of high power electronic and optoelectronic devices. This evaporative cooling is achieved by selective emission of hot electrons over a barrier layer from the cathode to the anode. As the energy distribution of emitted electrons is almost exclusively on one side of Fermi energy, upon the current flow, strong carrier-carrier and carrier-lattice scatterings tend to restore the quasi equilibrium Fermi distribution in the cathode by absorbing energy from the lattice, and thus cooling the emitter junction. An analytic expression for the optimum barrier thickness is derived. It describes the interplay between Joule heating in the barrier and heat conduction from the hot to the cold junction. It is shown that by choosing a barrier material with high electron mobility and low thermal conductivity it is possible to cool electronic devices by 5 to 40 degrees in a wide range of temperatures.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Heterostructure integrated thermionic coolersApplied Physics Letters, 1997
- Thermoelectric transport in quantum well superlatticesApplied Physics Letters, 1997
- High thermoelectric figures of merit in PbTe quantum wellsJournal of Electronic Materials, 1996
- Thermoelectric figure of merit of superlatticesApplied Physics Letters, 1994
- Thermionic refrigerationJournal of Applied Physics, 1994
- Quantum Cascade LaserScience, 1994
- Effect of quantum-well structures on the thermoelectric figure of meritPhysical Review B, 1993