How to Select a Peltier Module

[Music] welcome and today we are going to learn more about peltier modules and how to select the right one for your application as a quick overview a peltier module is a semiconductor device that when you run a current through it actively transfers heat from one side of the module to another peltier modules are also commonly referred to as thermoelectric modules thermoelectric coolers or tec modules they're typically rather non-descript as you can see from the sample i'm holding but they're quite powerful in their capabilities of course there are other styles such as this one which is an entire peltier cooling unit and other multi-stage devices that we won't consider here but the basic premise is the same as you apply a voltage across these terminals the current through the device moves heat from one side to the other but before getting into how to choose a peltier device let's make sure we understand an important graph that we see on all data sheets that tell us what a peltier device is capable of and how much power it needs to perform its task using the cp100 series datasheet as an example we can go to the third page and find the performance graph let's assume we're using the cp103033 and hot side temperature is 27 degrees celsius and use that graph first you decide how much heat you need to transfer let's say 40 watts so we draw a line horizontally from 40 watts across the graph then depending on how much cooler you want the cold side versus the hot side you draw a vertical line at that point we'll say 30 degrees cooler and draw a vertical line there now where the vertical and horizontal lines meet you know how many amps of current the peltier device will need 10 in this case and as we've drawn the vertical line all the way to the top where the vertical line and the 10 amp line meets we draw a horizontal line back to the left to see that we'll need between 11 and 12 volts now we know that we'll need to provide around 11 volts to have 10 amps through the device so that the cool side of the peltier device is 30 degrees cooler than the warm side while still transferring 40 watts just from reading this graph it's important to note that a peltier module is not ideal at actually dissipating the heat you'll need a heat sink to remove the excess heat and distribute it into the air therefore one final thing to think about is that the 11 volts and 10 amps are creating 110 watts of power as well so any heatsink attached to the peltier device we'll need to dissipate 150 watts of power not just 40 watts with that we can discuss some of the different features of the peltier devices to make sure you're getting the right device for your application when you're choosing a peltier device you'll need to first identify your requirements how much heat needs to be transferred what will be the temperature difference from hot side to cold side otherwise known as delta t what size object are you trying to cool and how will you need to mount the peltier on the device being cooled looking at our parametric search as an example you can sort through each of these quite easily to solve the scenario discussed before requiring the movement of 40 watts and a 30 degree differential we can either manually look at the qmax on each device while scrolling through them and then jump into the product page to verify the delta temperature or we can use the filters on the top for us we can just put in the range of power transfer we want and it looks like all of them will be able to handle the temperature differential now it's just a matter of selecting the appropriately sized peltier module to match your design requirements once you've selected a potential peltier module it's also essential to make certain to calculate the voltage and current required as we did earlier this way you know that you can provide the proper voltage and sufficient current to run the device properly these peltier modules open up a lot of cooling opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable particularly cooling devices down below ambient temperatures i hope this overview of peltier modules has made it clear how they work and how to select the best one for your application for more information about peltier devices check out our thermal management blogs on our website

Channel: CUI Devices

Views: 80,577

Keywords: Peltier modules, Peltier devices, Thermoelectric coolers, Thermoelectric modules, TEC modules, Thermal Management, Peltier cooling unit, Single-stage Peltier modules, Multi-stage Peltier modules

Id: 3aVCFJo8B9Q

Length: 4min 0sec (240 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021