1. Technical Field
The present invention is generally related to the field of integrated circuits and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for cooling integrated circuits.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of radio frequencies (RF) and microwave frequencies have been utilized for most of the 20th century to provide communications. Early uses of RF and microwave technologies involved radio communications, both broadcast and two-way communication, and radar for detecting incoming aircraft. Much of this early technology was developed the 1940""s to help in fighting World War II.
After the war, RF and microwave technologies were extended into other communication areas. Telephone companies used microwave technologies to carry voice communications across areas in which it was impractical to build transmission lines, such as, for example, in vary mountainous terrain. RF frequencies were also used by the emerging television industry to carry television broadcasts to peoples"" homes where their television sets received the broadcast signal.
More recently, RF transmissions have been used to carry satellite signals, both for military and commercial use as well as, more recently, for delivering television content to subscriber""s homes as well as access to the Internet. RF and microwave frequencies are also used to provide wireless (cellular) telephone services, these services include analog, digital and personal communication services (PCS).
The transmission capacity of an electronic communications through RF transmissions is determined by the range of the frequency signals (bandwidth), and the number of channels in the bandwidth. It is expressed in bits per second, bytes per second or in Hertz (cycles per second). As more and more information is being transmitted through RF circuits, a need for greater bandwidth has developed to handle this increase in information transmittal. However, the bandwidths and channel capacity of RF, cellular, and microwave systems are limited by the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios of the amplification and filtering process within the system. One important method to increase the S/N ratios is to reduce the thermal noise by lowering the operating temperature of the circuits. Therefore, it would be desirable to have an apparatus, system, and method for cooling RF circuits such that the bandwidths and channel capacity of the RF circuits could be increased.
The present invention provides an apparatus for cooling an integrated circuit component, such as a field effect transistor circuit used in a radio frequency transistor or receiver. In one embodiment, the cooling apparatus includes a cold plate thermally coupled to the integrated circuit component, a thermoelectric cooler thermally coupled to the cold plate; and a hot plate thermally coupled to the thermoelectric cooler. Heat is removed from the integrated circuit component through the cold plate and transmitted to the hot plate through the thermoelectric cooler. The hot plate is located at a surface of an integrated circuit such that heat transmitted to it from the integrated circuit component is dissipated into the atmosphere surrounding the integrated circuit chip.