Joule-Thomson microcooling developments at University of Twente

The development of Joule-Thomson microcoolers has been an on-going and successful research project at the University of Twente for many years. The aim of the research is to develop small and fully integrated cryogenic cooling systems for cooling small electronic devices such as pre-amplifiers and infrared sensors, in order to improve their performance. In the foregoing years, we have successfully developed single-stage microcoolers (typically cooling to 100 K) and two-stage microcoolers (typically 30 K) using standard micromachining technologies. In the present paper, we emphatically discuss recent developments in the Twente microcooling project among which microcoolers with a double expansion of the high pressure flow (reducing the 100 K to 83 K operating temperature), microcoolers operating with hydrocarbon gas mixtures, and microcoolers with an ejector, the three new developments aiming at lower cold end temperatures, lower operating pressure ratios and/or higher efficiency. Besides, utilization of microcoolers for cooling electronics and clogging phenomenon in microcoolers will also be introduced.