Thermoelectricity from wasted heat of integrated circuits

Abstract

We demonstrate that waste heat from integrated circuits especially computer microprocessors can be recycled as valuable electricity to power up a portion of the circuitry or other important accessories such as on-chip cooling modules, etc. This gives a positive spin to a negative effect of ever increasing heat dissipation associated with increased power consumption aligned with shrinking down trend of transistor dimension. This concept can also be used as an important vehicle for self-powered systems-on-chip. We provide theoretical analysis supported by simulation data followed by experimental verification of on-chip thermoelectricity generation from dissipated (otherwise wasted) heat of a microprocessor.