Thin-film thermoelectrics support higher cooling densities, smaller form factors and higher reliability.

Traditional thermoelectric coolers are based on discrete thermocouple elements (tiny blocks of thermoelectric material) and assembled using large scale assembly processes (such as pick-and-place machine operations). Electrical circuits within the traditional thermoelectric are established by soldering the thermocouple elements onto metal circuits on ceramic substrates. This process limits the ability to scale the thermoelectric to smaller sizes, based on the capabilities of the assembly process. Additionally, the large number of solder connections in the electrical path within the thermoelectric leads to higher failure rates.

nanoCoolers has developed a proprietary processing technology that allows the manufacturing of thermoelectrics based on thin-film materials and wafer-scale IC processing. This provides smaller feature sizes within the thermoelectric, which results in higher cooling densities and smaller form factors. The process also does not involve solders interconnecting the thermoelectric elements, this is done using standard IC metal lithography processes. This increases the reliability of the device.

Smaller, higher-cooling density thermoelectrics provides several commercial benefits over traditional thermoelectrics. In applications using traditional thermoelectrics, it enables improvements in performance (power efficiency, cooling times, temperature control), reduction in size and improvement reliability. It also enables new applications previously impossible with thermoelectrics based on their size and cooling capabilities.