The consumer electronics market is one of the most innovative and fast changing markets in the world today.

New product introductions occur on a fairly regular basis especially for the mobile or hand held market with new units getting smaller and more packed with functions. Cell phones sales world wide are in the hundreds of millions per year and are no longer used to just place phone calls. They can be used to browse the internet, allow you to read your email or play your favorite music.

With all this functionality in a smaller package comes more heat. For devices with integrated displays, the heat issue becomes two fold. First is the usual problem of maintaining the device within its predetermined operating temperature range, and second is the need to keep heat away from the temperature sensitive display. Nextreme's thermal barrier makes use of an array of thin film TECs to redirect the flow of heat to a lower temperature zone in the device.

The other issue mobile devices face is that they interface to a human being who is also very temperature sensitive and most mobile devices have sealed enclosures to prevent contamination. The thin-film thermal barrier, when embedded into the device's housing, can force heat away from the surface, thus maintaining surface temperatures within safe ergonomic limits, enabling the device to be used or held for a prolonged time.

Miniature TECs are the alternative for pushing the thermal management boundary further in order to continue integrating more functionality into consumer electronics.