Smallest thermoelectric cooler?

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

The thermoelectric coolers that I see are 40x40x0.5mm.

I am looking for a way to generate heat which is smaller than this.

As small as 10mm x 10mm or even smaller.

Can you cut up a thermoelectric cooler into smaller pieces?

Or does anyone know how to do this?

Can you just apply voltage to any wire with button batteries connected in series, and it will heat up, like copper or aluminium wire or solder wire?

I bought some thin Tungsten wire, hooked it up to a button battery, and it wasn’t getting hot at all. This is despite me seeing an Internet page where as little as 3v can create ridiculously hot temperatures with Tungsten wire.

Is there some way to replicate maybe what a soldering iron does but on a much smaller package?

I am looking to generate heat here in the smallest possible package

Thanks

2

And it can, if there is enough current.

3V at a 1000A is 3kw, that would likely make a short bit of wire glow red hot, if indeed it did not melt first.

Do you think a 'button' battery can provide enough current to make the tungsten wire 'ridiculously hot' ?

3

If the battery is also going to be small, you'll be limited to a very short time during which you can heat anything.

4

XY problem!
What you are trying to do?

5

Perhaps explain to the forum what you are actually trying to do ?

6

I have experienced use 0805 sizes (2mm x 1mm) PTC fuses (a.k.a Polyswitch) as micro heaters.
Imitate this product, I was it tried and well it worked.
https://www.murata.com/en-us/news/thermistor/ptc/2017/0328
Well... But I don't think it's possible with coin cell batteries.

7

What I am trying to do, is generate heat in the smallest device possible.

So, you mentioned 3v at 1000A. Are there any button batteries that can do this, or similar? It doesn’t have to be precisely 1000A. But I am getting the impression from your post that the Amps in typical button batteries is not enough.

I should point out, I don’t actually mind how long the heat lasts for. Even if your setup could only provide heat for a few seconds or minutes without the battery running out, that would be OK.

Don’t worry about purpose here. I am learning science for the sake of science. I have no particular use case in mind. Not everything always has to be a product.

8

Not easily, they are wired with all the elements in series in a zig-zag pattern - you might be able to shorten it in one direction, but not both - you'll also need a fine diamond saw for cutting alumina.

To generate heat you just need a heater, no need for a peltier device.

9

https://www.google.com/search?q=USB+flameless+cigarette+lighter&tbm=isch
It has enough power to make nichrome wire glow up.
Maybe, all cases uses 3.7V Li-po battery...

10

Ok, so surmising: you want heat from a coin cell and it doesn't matter much how long it'll last. I'd suggest short-circuiting the coin cell with a single strand of copper wire from a piece of cable. You know, the very thin wire that makes up bog-standard cables. Strip the mantle and cut off a single wire.
There'll be quite some heat produced, and the coin cell won't last long and may in fact be damaged.

11

Tungsten wire is hopeless for heating, it will simply burn/oxidize away. It also has a very strong change in resistance with temperature making control difficult. It must be used in vacuum, or inert gas, if you want any sort of high temperature.

For heating wire alloys like nichrome are used which are able to survive red-hot in air without degrading/oxidizing away, and which have much flatter resistance-temperature curves.

Button batteries cannot produce much power, so won't be able to heat much. You
need to do the maths, or give us more information about what you are trying to do
so we can figure out if its vaguely feasible.

12

Of course, but this is a forum about using Arduinos, so we are wondering what the Arduino application is.

13

I think most heat can be obtained from a lithium battery by charging it - they will explode.

Another possibility is to generate sparks somehow - a lot of heat in a very small volume for very short time.

14

Get any disposable "Vape" device and disassemble it. It will contain a tiny heating element and a small LiPo cell. You can recharge the LiPo cell with any LiPo charger.

15

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