Abstract
From high-tech industry to consumer electronics, thermoelectric cooler (TEC) has been widely used. Basically, TEC is a sandwich structure. An array of small bismuth telluride cubes is placed between two ceramic plates and bonded to them. When a DC is applied, thermal deformation occurs because of the temperature gradient produced between the two ceramic plates of the device. To ensure the safety of the TEC, it is therefore important to investigate the thermal deformation induced. However, because of the complexity of the TEC structure, numerical simulation cannot be easily performed. In this study, digital speckle pattern interferometry (DSPI) was employed to measure the real-time full-field thermal deformation in TECs. Variations of thermal deformations versus magnitudes of DC were obtained. The obtained experimental results will be very useful for building the numerical model. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.