A Semi-Empirically Thermal Optimization for Heat Sink/TEC Assemblies With Various External Thermal Resistances

An effective semi-empirical method that combines thermal network models and empirical correlations for exploring the thermal performance of heat sinks and HS/TEC assemblies under different external thermal resistances is successfully established. A series of parametric studies, including the effects of external thermal resistance, input current of TEC and pumping heat capacity, on thermal performance improvements of HS/TEC assemblies have been performed. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is applied to establish explicit models of the thermal performance of HS/TEC assemblies under various external thermal resistances in terms of the design variables through statistical fitting method. Furthermore, the numerical optimization results for HS/TEC assemblies under different constraints are obtained. With constrained optimal designs of HS/TEC assemblies, the HS/TEC assemblies can provide excellent thermal performance improvements on (1) the reduction of thermal resistance, (2) the enhancement of module heat loads and (3) the improvement of external thermal resistance.