Patent ID: 7954331

Claim:
A heat exchanger for cooling an aircraft subsystem, comprising: a system coolant loop configured to move a first low-temperature coolant through a heat-producing system to create a first high-temperature coolant; a thermoelectric chiller comprising at least one cold plate configured to receive a portion of the first high-temperature coolant, remove heat from the portion of the first high-temperature coolant to produce the first low-temperature coolant, and to discharge the first low-temperature coolant back into the system coolant loop, at least one hot plate configured to receive a second low-temperature coolant, add heat to the second low-temperature coolant to produce a second high-temperature coolant, and to discharge the second high-temperature coolant to a heat discharge loop, and at least one thermoelectric cooler module positioned between the at least one cold plate and the at least one hot plate and operative to transfer heat from the at least one cold plate to the at least one hot plate to maintain the at least one cold plate at a temperature below that of the first high-temperature coolant; and the heat discharge loop configured to move the second low-temperature coolant through the at least one hot plate mechanism and to move the second high-temperature coolant through a heat discharge mechanism configured to extract heat from the second high-temperature coolant to produce the second low-temperature coolant.