Abstract

Increasing micro-nano electronic chip performance has historically been accompanied by decreasing size and increasing on-chip power density, both of which present a challenge of temperature controllability. Temperature control can both protect electronic systems from failure due to local overheating and ensure the long-term operation of high-precision temperature-sensitive components by maximizing temperature stability^[1]. There are two typical temperature changes in modern electronics. One is a slow change with fluctuations in working environment temperature, and another one is momentary changes in local temperature caused by high-power micro components, resulting in unevenly distributed hot spots within microchips^[2]. Thus, these make precise temperature control for micro on-chip components in time and space extremely challenging.

Herein, we report an approach to integrating freestanding thermoelectric (TE) nano films^[3] into micro on-chip TE temperature-controller for thermal management of macro electronics, which demonstrated a net cooling temperature of ~22 K and a heat absorption density of ~120 W cm⁻², as well as high temperature control reliability and stability. This micro on-chip TE temperature-controller will play an important role in the development of modern electronics with numerous promising applications.

References:

[1] L.C. Ortiz, et al. Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems 2020, 29 (2), 190-201.

[2] R. Mahajan, et al. Proceedings of the IEEE 2006, 94 (8), 1476-1486.

[3] Q. Jin, et al. Nature Materials 2019, 18 (1), 62-68.