The TEC5V4A-D is an electronic module designed for driving TECs (Thermo-Electric Coolers) with high stability in regulating the object temperature, high energy efficiency, zero EMI, and small package. It can be used in a vacuum environment. Figure 1 is the photo of an actual TEC5V4A-D.

The module provides interface components for users to configure desired object temperature range, i.e. set-point temperature range; maximum voltage across TEC, i.e. maximum TEC voltage; and the compensation network. The compensation network compensates the high order thermal load and thus stabilizes the temperature control loop.

It provides these functions: thermistor T-R curve linearization, temperature measurement and monitoring, temperature control loop status indication, TEC voltage monitoring, power up delay, and shut down.

The TEC5V4A-D comes with a high stability low noise 3.0V voltage reference which can be used for setting the desired object temperature by using a POT (Potentiometer) or a
DAC (Digital to Analog Converter). When using this reference for setting the set-point temperature, the set-point temperature error is independent of this reference voltage. This is because the internal temperature measurement network also uses this voltage as the reference, the errors in setting the temperature and measuring the temperature cancel with each other, setting the object temperature with higher stability. This reference can also be utilized by an ADC (Analog to Digital Converter), for the same reason, the measurement error will also be independent of the reference voltage, resulting in a more accurate measurement.