A Transient Method for Testing Thermoelectric Coolers
一种测试半导体制冷器的瞬态方法

The figure of merit ZT,maximum temperature difference,and response time are important parameters for thermoelectric coolers.A transient method for testing these parameters is introduced,and the effect of the heat sink is also discussed.The resistance and Seebeck voltages used to calculate the ZT and the maximum temperature difference are measured using a testing system composed of a DC pulse generator and a DAQ card.The transient method is simple and accurate,and can be used to test thin film thermoelectric coolers.In addition,this method spends very little time.Thus,it can shorten the reliability test period for thermoelectric coolers.A 4mm×4mm×2.4mm commercial thermoelectric cooler is tested using this method.A figure of merit ZT of 0.39,maximum temperature difference of 58.5K,and response time of 20s is measured.