Thermoelectric Cooling

SUBHAJIT NAYEK
ROLL=15ME62R24
M.TECH 1ST YEAR
THERMAL SCIENCE AND ENGG
IIT KHARAGPUR
 CONTENT
• Introduction

• Advantage and disadvantage

• Application

• Principles

• Thermoelectric Materials

• Performance of TEC

• Conclusion

• Reference
 ADVANTAGES

• No moving parts.
• Can operate under mechanical vibration
• MTBF >100000 hours.
• CFC like refrigerants which are harmful are not used
• Precise control
• It can be put in any orientation
 Disadvantages
• As size is small it can dissipate small amount of
heat flux
• Lower COP.
 APPLICATION
It is used where precise control is necessary and
response time is very small-
• Medical application
• Electronic cooling
• Experimental environment
 Basic Principles
• Peltier Effect- If direct electric current is passed through
two dissimilar metal joined to each other at both ends
then one end is heated and the other is cooled

• The current is transported through charge carriers.

• Heat transfer occurs in the direction of charge carrier

movement.
 Basic Principles
• Though it is possible to make a TEC with metals, in general a
semiconductor like bismuth telluride is used between two
copper plates as current through semi conductor can be
controlled precisely.

• The semi conductor may be positively or negatively doped

and it will determine the thermal energy carrier

• The semiconductor material is soldered between two

conductive materials such as copper
Basic Principles
N-type semi conductor

(www.tellurex.com)
Basic Principles
P-type semi conductor

(www.tellurex.com)
 Basic Principles
• To make the system more more efficient an N-type and a P-type semi
conductor is used as shown in the figure

• In this configuration the two semi conductor plates are electrically in

series but thermally in parallel and thus they increase cooling capacity

(www.tetech.com)
 Basic Principles
• The devices operates at 12-16 V at 4-5 amps. So this is
convenient to be used for practical purposes

(www.tetech.com)
 Thermoelectric Materials
• Bi2Te3 is most commonly used but it gives low COP

• Alternative materials :
– Alternating layers of Sb2Te3 and Bi2Te3

– Lead telluride and its alloys

– Solid solution of Si and Ge

Electronic cooling

Schematic diagram of the cooling system

 Electronic cooling
• The main objective is to maintain the chip temperature below
358-363 K.
• The cold junction temperature Tc and the temperature
difference T between hot and cold junction are used as
parameter and cooling capacity Qc, chip junction
temperature Tj, COP and heat sink thermal resistance R2 are
computed
 Performance of TEC 
Tc=40 °C, Iopt=74.75 A Tc=60 °C, Iopt=79.45 A Tc=80 °C, Iopt=84.5 A
∆T Qmax COP Tj R2 Qmax COP Tj R2 Qmax COP Tj R2
134.2 0.449 45.3 0.046 153.3 0.452 66.0 0.081 173.6 0.456 86.8 0.108
10
123.1 0.399 44.8 0.070 142.2 0.407 65.6 0.102 162.5 0.415 86.4 0.126
20
111.9 0.353 44.4 0.093 131.1 0.365 65.2 0.1230 151.4 0.377 86.0 0.145
30
100.8 0.309 44.0 0.117 119.9 0.325 64.7 0.1430 140.3 0.341 85.5 0.163
40
89.7 0.267 43.5 0.141 108.8 0.287 64.3 0.1640 129.2 0.306 85.1 0.181
50

All values are in SI unit and R1 is taken as.039 SI unit

Thermoelectric Performance

(Nolas, G.S. Goldsmid H., and Sharp J. (2001). Thermoelectrics : basic principles and new materials developments. New

York: Springer)
 CONCLUSION
• As the value of R2 is almost impossible to achieve
conventionally. So microchannel heat sink must be used to
operate at maximum cooling capacity
• The cooling capacity and COP can be increased by increasing
the TEC cold side temperature or decreasing temperature
difference between the TEC hot and cold sides. The highest
cooling capacity obtained in this study was as high as 173.6 W
when the TEC was operated under electric current of 84.5
A, Tc=80 °C, and ΔT=10 °C. The resultant junction temperature
was 86.8 °C and the required heat sink thermal resistance was
0.108 °C/W. 
 REFERENCE
• Chein, R. and Huang, G. (2004). Thermoelectric cooler
application in electronic cooling. Applied Thermal
Engineering, 24 (14-15), pp. 2207-2217

• Nolas, G.S. Goldsmid H., and Sharp J. (2001).

Thermoelectrics : basic principles and new materials
developments. New York: Springer
THANK YOU