On wafer thermal characterization of miniature gallium arsenide microcoolers with thermal loading from DC probes

Miniature aluminium gallium arsenide/gallium arsenide (AlGaAs/GaAs) coolers were fabricated on wafer, enabling different contact geometries to be realized in the same process run. To individually DC bias the microcooler, microprobes were used leading to thermal loading of the cooler. A simple experimental technique was developed to verify the temperature difference (ΔT) between the cold cathode and hot anode contacts is due to cooling rather than heating of the cooler