Improvement of Cooling Performance of a Thermoelectric Air Cooling System Using a Vapor Chamber Heat Sink

Since vapor chambers exhibit excellent thermal performance, they are suited to use as the basis of a heat sink. This work presents the results of tests carried out to investigate the potential application of a vapor chamber heat sink for improving the cooling performance of a thermoelectric (TE) air cooling system. To this end, two sets of TE air coolers were constructed. The cold side of the TE module of both sets was fixed to a conventional plate-fin heat sink. The hot side of one set was fixed to a vapor chamber heat sink, whereas the other set was fixed to a conventional plate-fin heat sink. The effects of air flow rate and electric current supplied to the TE module on the cooling performance were considered. Experimental data were compared with corresponding data for a conventional plate-fin heat sink. It also has been experimentally proven that the use of a vapor chamber heat sink increases the coefficient of performance (COP) by up to 34.2%.