Size considerations in interfacing thermoacoustic coolers with electronics

Journal ArticleSmall thermoacoustic coolers heat pumps show much promise for heat management in microcircuits, especially since they can be miniaturized for interfacing with circuits. Usually they are operated in the resonant mode with sound pumping heat; the device dimensions are reduced when the acoustic pump frequency is raised. Results on the development of this technology will be presented for devices operating in the frequency range of 4 kHz to 25 kHz. Since the efficiency and cooling power depend on geometric factors, scaling in the miniaturization plays an important role. The cooling power varies with the total effective cross-sectional area of stack relative to sound field and hence on the cross-sectional area at stack position