Thermoelectric Energy Scavenging from Waste Heat of Power Amplifier Transistors
07 October 2009
A thermoelectric (TE) energy scavenging technique is proposed to recover the energy from the waste heat of power amplifier (PA) transistors. The present study seeks to explore optimized pellet geometries, the efficiency and the performance of the power generation of the energy scavenging module under various parametric conditions. A fully-coupled TE model is developed integrating TE physics with heat transfer physics. The TE model is comprehensively used to optimize pellet geometries under various heat dissipations of PA transistors, heat sink performances, and load resistances. The TE model determines the efficiencies and the performances of the energy scavenging module associated with optimized pellet geometries.