Cool development
Taking advantage of semiconductor manufacturing techniques, Nextreme has developed a thermoelectric cooler which can be used for a range of thermal management applications.
According to Dr Seri Lee, the company’s cto: “Unlike conventional thermoelectric components made by manually assembling individual pellets together, we utilize semiconductor processing techniques to provide pin-point thermal control for high heat fluxes in order to increase product performance, reliability and yield.”
Called eTEC, the device is said to provide high power densities and microsecond response times in a footprint which can be as small as 0.3 x 0.3 x 0.1mm.
The devices, which use the Peltier effect, have heat fluxes of up to 100W/cm². According to Nextreme, a 4W hot spot can be cooled by an eTEC with a coefficient of performance of 2 using 2W of input power. Input power can also be controlled dynamically.
