REVIEW ARTICLE
Modeling of a Bio-Thermo-Electric Micro-Cooler
Aparna Prabhakar, Michael C. Murphy, Ram V. Devireddy*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2007Volume: 1
First Page: 1
Last Page: 8
Publisher ID: TOBIOTJ-1-1
DOI: 10.2174/1874070700701010001
Article History:
Received Date: 01/03/2007Acceptance Date: 17/04/2007
Electronic publication date: 25/5/2007
Collection year: 2007
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
This work is a part of an on-going research effort to fabricate a device consisting of an array of micro thermoelectric coolers (μTECs) for highly localized control of temperature in biological systems. A preliminary lumped 1-D parameter model was developed and numerical simulations were carried out to identify the critical and optimal design parameters for a μTEC operating under steady state conditions. The lumped parameter analysis revealed the presence of a new limitation on the maximum possible current through the system, which we denoted as the secondary breakdown current (as opposed to the primary breakdown current associated with Joules heating). To further understand the effect of contact resistances (thermal and electrical), radiative effects, and lateral effects (interactions between μTECs) in our device, we developed a 3-D finite element model (FEM) using ANSYS®. The FEM analysis identified the optimal distance between μTECs to generate discrete and distinct temperatures within the cells located in the extracellular matrix and thus, generating the optimal design specifications for our device.