Materials and Devices for On-Chip and Off-Chip Peltier Cooling: A Review

The thermoelectric effect forms the basis of Peltier cooling that has attracted interest for solid-state refrigeration for more than a century. The dearth of materials level efficiency in converting between heat and electricity has limited widespread applications. With renewed focus on energy technologies in the past three decades, the thermoelectric effect has been intensely explored in new materials using state-of-the-art advances in materials fabrication, characterization techniques, and theory. This article aims to navigate the complex landscape of these studies to identify credible advances, pinpoint continuing problems, and lay out future prospects for both research and applications, with emphasis on electronics cooling.