The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 30, 1995
Filed:
Apr. 29, 1994
Edward D Suski, Lake Forest, CA (US);
AST Research, Inc., Irvine, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method for recovering power dissipated by a semiconductor integrated circuit includes a thermoelectric generator which converts the heat generated by the integrated circuit into electrical energy. The electrical energy is used to drive a fan or other airflow generating device to cause heated air to be moved away from the integrated circuit and cooler air to be drawn to the integrated circuit to absorb further heat from the integrated circuit. In the described embodiment, the thermoelectric generator is a Peltier cooler positioned between the integrated circuit and a heatsink. The Peltier cooler is operated in the Seebeck mode to generate power in response to the temperature differential between the integrated circuit and the heatsink. The fan is positioned proximate to the heatsink to cause air flow over the heatsink thereby reducing the temperature of the heatsink and thus reducing the temperature of the integrated circuit by causing more heat to be transferred from the integrated circuit to the heatsink.