Introduction to Optical Module with TEC and without TEC

1. Introduction of TEC
      TEC (Thermo Electric Cooler) is the abbreviation of semiconductor cooler (also called thermoelectric cooler). It is a thermoelectric material based on the Peltier effect to realize the solid-state cooling technology, can be realized by changing the direction of the current TEC device surface temperature control.
2. Application of TEC in Optical Module
      Optical modules can be categorized from the point of view of whether they need to be classified with automatic temperature control, and can be divided into two types: without cooling (without TEC) and with cooling (with TEC), corresponding to the TEC is mainly used to control the operating temperature of the LD semiconductor chip within the TOSA, so that it can work at a constant temperature over a long period of time;
      The TEC is generally encapsulated in the cavity of the TO-CAN or BOX with the LD for heat conduction control, and the following figure shows the schematic diagram of the TEC in the EML TOSA package structure;

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of EML TOSA structure with TEC

3. Optical module with TEC and without TEC selection introduction
      Products with TEC are generally used in the following common scenarios:
      a. Applications with strict requirements on wavelength temperature drift (similar to DWDM optical modules);
      b. most of the EML TOSA DFB and EA need to use TEC to constant temperature to avoid the output optical power fluctuations caused by the difference in temperature drift coefficient of the two parts;
      c. in the high-speed long-distance transmission products, the use of TEC constant temperature can reduce the temperature changes caused by the ups and downs of the thermal noise, as well as optimize the heat dissipation of the high-power optical chip, thereby enhancing the signal transmission capability of the product;
      The choice of optical module with TEC depends on the actual application scenario and cost budget, the cost of optical module with TEC is relatively high, but in high-speed, long-distance, DWDM and other applications with better transmission performance and reliability.
      Moduletek Limited is at your service!
      If you have any questions about the above content, you can contact us by Email : web@moduletek.com