Evaluation Kit Demonstrates The Power Of Thermoelectric Cooling

In addition to the UPF40 thermoelectric cooler, the evaluation kit consists of a heat sink/fan assembly, a sealed dry-air chamber and two type K thermocouples. The kit provides the full thermal path and requires only an adjustable power supply, a volt meter, and a two-channel, type K thermocouple readout to measure the temperature differential between the hot and cold sides of the eTEC™.

The evaluation kit makes it easy for customers to reproduce and confirm the cooling performance data of the UPF40 provided by Nextreme during their evaluation process, said Dave Koester, vice president of engineering for Nextreme.

The UPF40 module is ideal for precise cooling and temperature control of opto-electronic applications with high heat-flux requirements in very small packages, including laser diodes, high-brightness LEDs, VCSELs and photo-detectors. It operates with heat fluxes more than 10 times greater than conventional thermoelectric coolers in a fraction of the space. The module can pump a heat density of up to 72W/cm² at 25°C, and as a result, it can move a maximum of 3.7W of heat with an active footprint of only 5.1mm².

The module's extremely small footprint opens up new thermal management capabilities in electronics that were previously unavailable. The UPF40 can be embedded directly into electronic packages when and where it’s needed to deliver cooling for a wide variety of thermal management applications.

For example, the module can be embedded in a laser diode package to maintain proper operating conditions while improving output levels, reliability and longevity of the laser. The laser can be mounted directly on the UPF40 module providing the ability to precisely cool the laser without the need to cool the entire package, which reduces the overall power budget of the device. Higher wattage lasers can be delivered in smaller and less costly packages.

Nextreme uses its breakthrough thermal bump technology to produce discrete and integrated cooling and power generation devices. Nextreme currently offers several thermoelectric coolers such as the OptoCooler UPF4, HV14 and the UPF40 that are capable of cooling and heating in ranges from 0.4 watts to 4 watts with plans to provide higher heat pumping devices in the near future. Custom coolers with higher wattages and larger formats are also available.