ABSTRACT
Recent advances in thermoelectric technologies are beginning to meet some of the needs in the growing number of advanced medical devices. While commercial thermoelectric technologies have been available since the 1950s, thermoelectric devices have historically found limited use in biomedical applications. Early uses took advantage of the solid-state heating and cooling e¤ects for niche applications such as DNA thermal cyclers, medicine cooling bags and medical imaging devices. šese are o¸en considered premium applications where the advantages of rapid solid-state heating or cooling outweigh the costs and ine´ciencies associated with the state-of-the-art thermoelectric unit. Recent advances in both thermoelectric research and biomedical engineering, however, have drawn renewed interest from the medical community, particularly in their energy-harvesting uses. še burgeoning portable electronics industry with its omnipresent goal for low-power consumption and high performance has spawned a new wave of portable and implantable biomedical devices. Consequently, the timing is apt for the convergence of novel thermoelectric technologies with current and future medical devices.
