System employing temporal integration of thermoelectric action
AssigneeNanoCoolers, Inc.
InventorUttam Ghoshal
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Active cooling technologies such as thermoelectrics can be used to introduce thermal “gain” into a cooling system and, when employed in combination with forced flow cooling loops, can provide an attractive solution for cooling high heat flux density devices and/or components. In such configurations, it can be advantageous to discontinuously flow thermal transfer fluid into thermal contact with the hot or cold side of a thermoelectric module (TEM), allow it to dwell while heat is transferred from or to the TEM, and resume the flow. In configurations in which the TEM operation is itself discontinuous, various relationships between thermal transfer fluid flow and TEM operation can be advantageously employed to temporally intergrate thermoelectric action.
Claims39
A method of operating a thermoelectric system for thermal control of a target, the method comprising:
- flowing a first volume of thermal transfer fluid into a portion of a first fluid pathway, the first portion in thermal communication with a first side of a thermoelectric module;
- allowing at least a some of the first volume to dwell in the first fluid pathway portion;
- flowing a second volume of thermal transfer fluid into the first fluid pathway portion, while at the same time, flowing at least some of the first volume out toward the target;
- and
- repeating, for the second and subsequent volumes of the thermal transfer fluid, the allowing to dwell and the flowing toward the target.
A method of operating a thermoelectric system, the method comprising:
- discontinuously motivating flow of a first thermal transfer fluid through a first fluid pathway portion in thermal communication with a first side of a thermoelectric module;
- operating the thermoelectric module such that a temperature differential exists between the first and a second side of the thermoelectric module;
- and
- transferring heat between the first side of the thermoelectric module and a first volume of thermal transfer fluid in thermal communication therewith.
A thermoelectric system comprising:
- at least one thermoelectric module that exhibits, during operation, a thermal differential between a first and second side thereof;
- a first fluid pathway including a first portion in thermal communication with a first side of the thermoelectric module;
- and
- a pump operable to discontinuously motivate flow of thermal transfer fluid through the first fluid pathway, wherein the discontinuous motivation flows a first volume of thermal transfer fluid into the first fluid pathway portion and flows a corresponding second volume of the thermal transfer fluid out of the first fluid pathway portion.
An apparatus comprising:
- at least one thermoelectric module that exhibits, during operation, a thermal differential between a first and second side thereof;
- a first fluid pathway including a portion thereof in thermal communication with a first side of the thermoelectric module;
- and
- means for discontinuously motivating a thermal transfer fluid through the first fluid pathway portion and temporally integrating heat transfer between the thermal transfer fluid and the thermoelectric module.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.