Thales Cryogenics was again present at the 16th ICC meeting in Atlanta USA, presenting the latest developments in miniaturization of our contact seal and flexure bearing cooler range. New market developments require for more compact linear cryocoolers with long lifetimes. In the presented paper, the development of two new compact linear cryocoolers is outlined. Both coolers are initially designed for a ¼” IDCA cold finger and operation between 77K and 120K.

The first cooler type, which is the UP8497, is a long life fully miniature close tolerance contact seal cooler with an expected lifetime of 15.000 hours. The second type, which is the LSF9997, is an extremely reliable cooler which is based on the well proven flexure bearing technology with an expected lifetime of well over 25.000 hours. The differences in cooler concepts were described, including design and application trade-off’s. Furthermore experimental results were shown and discussed. Also the expected lifetimes of both concepts were discussed and the roadmap towards even more improvements regarding the reliability of both concepts of Stirling coolers.

Finally the development of miniature drive electronics suitable for this new generation of compact coolers was presented.