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Highlights • A model of light emitting - diode with micro - thermoelectric cooler is proposed. • Various interfacial and size effects are considered in the presented model. • Five structures of micro-coolers are designed to reduce the chip temperature. • The impact of interfacial effects on the thermal performance is assessed. • The impact of micro-thermoelectric cooler on the optical performance is analyzed. Abstract Thermoelectric cooler has been widely used in the thermal management of various electronic devices. However, the application of micro - thermoelectric cooler to high power light - emitting diode still needs to be further explored at present. This paper aims to establish a model of high power light - emitting diode package integrated with micro - thermoelectric cooler and explore the performance of this system under various interfacial and size effects. An experiment is conducted to validate the model. Five types of the micro - thermoelectric coolers are designed and integrated to the light - emitting diode package to reduce the localized junction temperature of the light - emitting diode chip. The influence of interfacial effects, thermoelectric element size, and driving power of micro - thermoelectric cooler on the system - level thermal and optical performance is discussed. Results indicate that the micro - thermoelectric cooler with 6 × 6 thermoelectric elements shows the best cooling performance for the driving power of micro - thermoelectric cooler lower than 0.85 W. For thermoelectric cooler with 6 × 6 thermoelectric elements, a minimum chip junction of 95.9 °C, which is 12.3 °C lower than that of the light - emitting diode without micro - thermoelectric cooler, can be achieved. This characteristic can increase the luminous efficacy and lifetime by 12.3% and 50%, respectively. It also found that the electrical boundary resistance plays a more dominant role, compared with the thermal boundary resistance. However, the thermal contact resistance exhibits greater adverse impact than the electrical contact resistance. In addition, a total performance improvement proportion of 25.5% can still be achieved, although the micro - thermoelectric cooler consumes power energy by 22.5% at the driving power of 0.87 W. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]