Thermoelectric Cooling for Power Electronics Circuits: Modeling and Active Temperature Control

This paper discusses the modeling and application of thermoelectric cooling (TEC) in power electronics circuits. To investigate the benefits and challenges of using TEC, a temperature-dependent thermoelectric model which includes both power electronics circuits and TEC device is presented. With this model, both steady-state and small signal analyses can be carried out, and this paper is more focused on the steady-state part. For the steady-state analysis, the results have identified the allowed operation range which could be used as guidelines for system design. Also, with TEC device, the case temperature and junction temperature of power electronics switches can be dynamically controlled. Therefore, the switches' thermal cycling problem could be alleviated, and the switch lifetime and overall system reliability will be improved. Both simulation and experimental results are presented in this paper to verify the analysis.