Micropelt unveils microstructured thermoelectric coolers

LONDON — Micropelt GmbH (Freiburg, Germany) has introduces the MPC-D40x series of thermoelectric coolers (TECs). Micropelt's micro-structuring technology enables them to produce TECs with an electrical resistance of more than 30 Ohms on a square millimeter footprint.

The TEC, in combination with its controller system, can be driven at an efficiency of 90 percent and better, Micropelt claims.

Applications include cooling of lower power laser diodes and other active or passive devices in the telecommunications, photonics, optoelectronics, and sensors markets.

Micropelt's MPC-D403/404 TECs have feature sizes of 45 microns and up to 50 thermocouples can be accommodated per square millimeter, about ten times more than bulk Peltier technology can offer.

"Our micro-structuring technology is able to scale to application-specific dimensions, electrical requirements, and thermal properties," said Joachim Nurnus, CTO of Micropelt, in a statement. "We measure drive currents 10 times smaller than those known for similar bulk TECs whose few thermocouples create an electrical resistance much below 1 ohm and hence a drive current well above 1 ampere."

The MPC-D40x series can pump over 600-milliwatts with a drive current of 200 milliamps as required for thermal management of low-power edge-emitting lasers or VCSELs. At low drive currents the power efficiency of the TEC increases. At the same time, the design of the control circuitry can be simpler, which also translates to reductions on the bill-of-materials and circuit board footprint.

Samples of Micropelt's MPC-D403 and MPC-D404 micro-coolers are now available. Volume pricing targets 3USD in quantities of 500,000 units.