Thermoelectric coolers: Systematic Analysis on Principle, Use and Limitations

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-986-5_91How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Thermoelectric cooler; Peltier effect; Solid-state refrigeration; COP; Thermal management

Abstract

Thermoelectric coolers (TECs), operating through the Peltier effect, are a solid-state means of temperature control with no moving parts, mechanical vibrations, or refrigerant gas. In this paper perform systematic analysis of TEC technology beginning from its historical evolution and basic operational principles. Application areas of importance revealed by the present analysis include the thermal stabilization of optoelectronic devices with minimal noise, fast response and precise temperature control. A systematic comparison with the conventional vapour-compression refrigeration highlights the competitive strengths of the TECs in specific application scenarios, however, yet recognizes the disadvantages of energy consumption, through typically lower coefficient of performance (COP) than CCs, and relative expense in materials and cooling mechanisms. As the goals are stated above, we review the recent advances for high figure of merit (ZT) thermoelectric materials, module-level structure optimization, and system-level integration in this regard. The conclusion is that TECs reside in a complementary role to conventional cooling technologies with high potential to extend to more applications by incorporating superior materials performance and thermal management systems in the future.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Guanchen Zhou
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/18
TI  - Thermoelectric coolers: Systematic Analysis on Principle, Use and Limitations
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Electronics, Electrical and Grid Technology (ICEEGT 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 891
EP  - 898
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-986-5_91
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-986-5_91
ID  - Zhou2026
ER  -