EAGER: Characterization and Modeling for Architectural Thermal Energy Harvesting

为了减少计算系统中高温引起的不断增加的功率消耗，当前的方法寻求应用冷却机制来积极地散热，以及设计管理技术以通过减缓热产生来避免热突发事件。作为对现有技术的补充，该建议试图使用一种根本不同的方法来解决热管理问题--我们通过使用热电材料将这些热量转化为可重复使用的能量，而不是移除热量或减缓热量产生。本文提出了一种热能收集(TEHar)框架，它将允许计算设备产生的热能被高效地回收、转换和收集，以实现更好的能源效率。TEHar基于计算平台热能分布的有趣含义：最热和最冷组件之间的温差可以超过几十度，产生陡峭的空间热梯度。我们发现，通过利用建筑层面的热电效应，计算产生的不同空间温度梯度可以被利用来将热量转换为可重复使用的能量。因此，由计算设备的电路产生的热量不会被浪费，而是被收集以供重复使用。这项研究探索了建筑层面上热能收集技术的可能性。总体而言，该建议探索了能量可采集性的潜力，特别是在计算系统中经常观察到的陡峭的温度梯度中，同时还研究了可以重复使用这些回收的能量的应用程序。这里提出的TEHar解决方案预计不仅可以减少冷却费用和环境温度，而且还可以提高能源利用率、设备寿命和物理空间利用率。这里开发的TEHar技术可以应用于各种计算设备，无论是大型还是小型。如果这项研究成功，它有可能产生显著的经济效益，并对环境产生重大的积极影响。此外，这种能量收集研究需要材料工程、超大规模集成电路架构、系统架构和机械工程等领域的跨学科参与，并将吸引不同的学生研究人员。总体而言，工程学和科学贡献也将产生重要的社会影响，包括亚利桑那州立大学工程学课程的拓宽，研究生和本科生研究活动的参与，创建高中或中学科学项目的潜力，以及目标群体在科学和工程学中代表性不足的增加。

To reduce the ever-increasing power dissipation caused by high temperature in computing systems, current approaches seek to apply cooling mechanisms to remove heat aggressively, as well as devising management techniques to avoid thermal emergencies by slowing down heat generation. Complementary to existing techniques, this proposal attempts to address the heat management problem using a fundamentally different approach -- rather than removing the heat or slowing down heat generation, we transform this heat into reusable energy by using thermoelectric materials. A Thermal Energy Harvesting (TEHar) framework is proposed here that will allow heat energy generated by computing devices to be recovered, transformed, and harvested efficiently, to achieve better energy efficiency. TEHar is based on the interesting implication of thermal energy distribution of computing platforms: the temperature differences between the hottest and the coldest components can be more than tens of degrees, creating a steep spatial thermal gradient. We discover that, by leveraging the thermoelectric effects at the architectural level, the varying spatial thermal gradients created as a result of computations can be exploited to transform heat into reusable energy. Therefore, the heat generated by the circuitry of the computing devices is not wasted but is rather harvested for reuse. This research explores possibilities in thermal energy harvesting techniques at the architectural level. Overall, this proposal explores the potential for energy harvestability, particularly in the steep thermal gradients commonly observed in computing systems, while also investigating applications that can reuse this recovered energy.The TEHar solution proposed here is anticipated to not only reduce cooling expenses and ambient temperatures, but also increase energy utilization, device lifetime, and physical space utilization. The TEHar technology developed here can be applied to a broad range of computing devices, large or small. If the research is successful, it has the potential of having a significant economic benefit as well as a significant, positive impact on the environment. Furthermore, this energy harvesting research requires cross-disciplinary engagement in areas such as material engineering, VLSI architecture, system architecture, and mechanical engineering and will attract a diverse set of student researchers. Overall, the engineering and scientific contributions will also have important societal impacts, including the broadening of ASU's engineering curriculum, the engagement of graduate as well as undergraduate research activities, the potential of creating high-school or middle-school scientific projects, and the increased representation of target underrepresented minorities in science and engineering.