TE Driver and Control

The ORBITEC Thermo-Electric Cooler (TE) Driver is a serially controlled, efficient Pulse Width Modulation driver that can drive single TEs or series strings of TEs. Its output is filtered to produce low noise dc to the TEs. An onboard microcontroller contains a proportional-integral (PI) controller. The driver can control voltage, current, or power to the TEs or can control temperature directly. It automatically bypasses a TE in a
series string should it develop an open circuit and the driver can return data (e.g. temperature, driver status) as part of its telemetry packet.
 

Input voltage range .......................................................................................................................................................... 5 to 48 V

Max output current ................................................................................................................................................................... 5 A

PWM frequency .................................................................................................................................................................... 16kHz

Efficiency .......................................................................................................................................... better than 90% at max output

Interface protocol ............................................................................................................................................ SPI,I²C, CAN, custom

Interface physical layer ................................................................................................................ 3.3/5 V CMOS, RS-232, RS-485, CAN

Interface speed ......................................................................................................................................................... up to 2.0 MHz

Resolution ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8, 10 bits
 

• Temperature and/or humidity control for plant, animal, and insect habitats.
   

• Sensor cooling for infrared detectors, photomultiplier tubes, and Charge Coupled Device (CCD) coolers.
   

• Medical: blood analyzers, tissue storage, insulin coolers.
   

• Military: inertial guidance systems, night vision equipment.
   

• Consumer goods: portable refrigerators & picnic coolers.
   

• Communications: laser diode coolers.
   

• Lab: ice point reference baths, electrophoresis cell coolers.