The influence of thermistor location on temperature measurement from a photonic package

This paper begins by describing some commonly used photonic packages. The requirements for optical connections to these packages are then discussed. Photonic packages are different to most electronic packages in that the thermal management requirements usually include maintaining the Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) at a fixed, sometimes below ambient, operating temperature rather than with keeping the temperature of a package below an upper limit as with most electronic packages. This means that an active Thermoelectric Module (TEM) based cooling system is required. A thermistor is fitted within the package to provide thermal feedback to the TEM controller. This paper uses finite element modelling to investigate whether there is a good match between the target temperature for the PIC and the temperature registered by the thermistor. The results of the modelling show that the model results are quite stable even with large variations in convection and thermistor thermal properties. The thermistor location influences the temperature measured from the package and its thermal response time, but follows the device temperature well enough to provide the TEM controller with adequate feedback to maintain the PIC at a steady temperature in steady state running conditions.