UC Santa Barbara

In this paper, we addressed heating problems in integrated circuits (ICs) and proposed a thin-film thermionic cooling solution using Si/SiGe superlattice microrefrigerators. We compared our technology with the current most common solution, thermoelectric coolers, by strengthening the advantages of its compatible fabrication process as ICs for easy integration, small footprint in the order of similar to 100 x 100 mu m(2), high cooling power density, 600 W/cm(2) and fast transient response less than 40 mu s. The thermoreflectance imaging also demonstrated its localized cooling. All these features combined together to make these microrefrigerators; a very promising application for on-chip temperature control, removing hot spots inside IC.