A method of diode parallel to improve the reliability of the thermoelectric coolers

Thermoelectric coolers (TECs) are very reliable solid-state devices which do not make any noise or give off harmful fluids/gases. With the increasing use of TECs, research on their reliability is required. This paper introduces the method for reliability design, which is in parallel with diode. A thermoelectric cooling module consists of some couples of thermoelements, connected in series by copper tabs. If a solder joint breaks, the thermoelectric cooling module fails. So redundancy can be used. The thermoelements are divided into some groups, and every group is parallel with a diode. If a thermoelement fails, the parallel diode conducts, so the thermoelectric cooling module continues operating. Thus, the reliability is greatly improved. As a result of calculation and series experiments, the failure rate of thermoelectric cooling module decrease by 40%, the electric current reduces by 4% and the cooling power is cut down by 4%. The negative function is not obvious