Thermoelectric-cooler unipolar drive achieves stable temperatures

摘要

Most engineers know about the solid-state refrigerators called Peltier devices or, more commonly, TECs (thermoelectric coolers) and how they can actively cool temperature-sensitive electronic components, such as optical detectors and solid-state lasers. It's also common knowledge— although perhaps less so—that TECs are bidirectional heat pumps and can therefore both heat and cool, depending on the direction of the supplied drive current. TECs can therefore serve as the basis for precision microthermo-stats, maintaining a predetermined temperature against ambient-temperature excursions that range both above and below the setpoint.