Various thermo-management systems exist and are well known. The most common cooling system uses the vapor-compression Rankine Cycle, which is the basis for most of today's refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners. Solid-state refrigeration devices, however, based on thermoelectric or electrocaloric effects (ECE) could provide higher energy efficiencies than traditional vapor compression cooling (VCC) technologies, eliminate the use of refrigerants (and the resultant greenhouse gas emissions), and increase the longevity of cooling devices and products. Thermoelectric and electrocaloric effects provide for the heating and cooling of a material by the application and/or removal of an applied electric field. With proper control and cycling, these effects could be used for refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumping, and other thermo-management systems.
One example of a solid-state refrigeration device based on thermoelectric effects is a thermoelectric cooler (TEC). Generally, a TEC is a device where current flow through the device heats one side of the device, while at the same time, cools the other side of the device. The side that is heated and the side that is cooled are controlled by the direction of the current flow. Thus, current flow in one direction will heat a first side, while current flow in the opposite direction will cool the same first side. For cooling an object, voltage is applied to the TEC and current is directed through the TEC in such a way that the cool the side of the TEC is adjacent the object. As a result, the object is cooled by the TEC. With proper cycling, a TEC may be used to effectively heat and/or cool an object to maintain a constant operating temperature.
Despite their advantages, thermoelectric devices generally have significantly lower efficiencies than conventional VCC technologies. In particular, the control systems used for these thermoelectric devices typically use complex analog circuitry that is inefficient, expensive, lacks flexibility, is not customizable, and is not easily upgradable. For example, a TEC is commonly controlled and driven by an analog circuit comprising analog amplifiers, switches, resistors, capacitors, and/or inductors.