The turbo-Brayton cycle cryocooler uses miniature, high-speed turbomachines and high-effectiveness recuperators to provide efficient cooling with low vibration and high reliability. Gas bearings are used in the miniature machines to support the rotors, which operate at speeds of 100,000 to 600,000 rpm. The low-mass rotors are the only moving parts in the systems, and because they are precision balanced, the systems are inherently vibration-free. No supplemental vibration-canceling electronics or hardware is required. The gas bearings also provide non-contact operation, so performance degradation resulting from wear or the accumulation of debris is absent. These systems are generally capable of maintenance-free operating lives of 5 to 20 years.

Turbo-Brayton cryocoolers may be arranged in a number of configurations to meet a variety of cooling requirements. They are continuous-flow systems made up of appropriate quantities of compressors, expansion turbines, recuperative heat exchangers, and thermal interfaces. These components may be integrated into a compact package or distributed over fairly large areas, interconnected by lengths of tubing. Refrigeration can be delivered to multiple loads at either a single temperature or several different temperatures. The second type of delivery can be accomplished either by multistaging an integral cooler or by combining several cryocoolers at the appropriate interfaces. Cooling loads and thermal interfaces may be separated by large distances without significant effects on overall system efficiency. Thus the turbo-Brayton cryocooler can be implemented in a variety of ways in space applications.