Thin-film thermoelectric cooling and heating devices for DNA genomic and proteomic chips, thermo-optical switching circuits, and IR tags

Abstract

A thermoelectric cooling and heating device including a substrate, a plurality of thermoelectric elements arranged on one side of the substrate and configured to perform at least one of selective heating and cooling such that each thermoelectric element includes a thermoelectric material, a Peltier contact contacting the thermoelectric material and forming under electrical current flow at least one of a heated junction and a cooled junction, and electrodes configured to provide current through the thermoelectric material and the Peltier contact. As such, the thermoelectric cooling and heating device selectively biases the thermoelectric elements to provide on one side of the thermolectric device a grid of localized heated or cooled junctions.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority as a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 118,236 entitled “Thin-film Thermoelectric Cooling And Heating Devices For DNA Genomic And Proteomic Chips, Thermo-Optical Switching Circuits, And IR Tags,” filed Apr. 9, 2002, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. Sec. 119 to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 282,185 entitled “Thin-film Thermoelectric Cooling and Heating Devices for DNA Genomic and Protemic Chips, Thermo-optical Switching Circuits, and IR Tags,” filed Apr. 9, 2001 The disclosures of U.S. application Ser. Nos. 10 / 118,236 and 60 / 282,185 are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. This application includes subject matter related to that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,351; and U.S. Ser. No. 09 / 381,963, filed Mar. 31, 1997, entitled “Thin-film Thermoelectric Device and Fabrication Method of Same”; and U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60 / 190,924, filed March 2000, e...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The thin-film devices achieve response times of tens of microseconds compared to hundreds of milliseconds for bulk devices, enabling rapid and precise temperature control of small areas, enhancing applications in DNA genomic and proteomic research, optical switching, and other micro-scale processes.

Problems solved by technology

So far, bulk thermoelectric devices have not been made to selectively heat or cool local regions without heating or cooling adjacent areas because of their relatively large size (of each element) as well as lack of microelectronic type processing.

As such, thermoelectric devices have not been employed in applications requiring selective heating or cooling.