The first machines were developed in the late 90's in several research and industrial environments, when efficient pulse-tube cryocoolers became available.

A 41 mK hybrid refrigerator (Gifford - McMahon and pulse-tube). The pulse-tube was used as 4K stage.

• A dilution refrigerator using the pulse tube and GM hybrid cryocooler for neutron scattering, Y. Koike, Y. Morii, T. Igarashi, M. Kubota, Y. Hiresaki, K. Tanida, Cryogenics 39 (1999) 579-583, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0011-2275(99)00077-6

The first refrigerator reached 15 mK with a continuous heat exchanger (2002). The model with a double mixing-chamber reached 4.3 mK (2004). Adding step heat exchangers allowed reaching T<10 mK (2012):

• 3He/4He dilution refrigerator with pulse-tube refrigerator precooling, Kurt Uhlig, Cryogenics 42 (2002) 73–77, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0011-2275(02)00002-4
• “Dry” dilution refrigerator with pulse-tube precooling, Kurt Uhlig, Cryogenics 44 (2004) 53, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryogenics.2003.07.007
• Cryogen-free dilution refrigerators, K Uhlig 2012, Journal of Physics:ConferenceSeries 400 (2012) 052039 https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/400/5/052039

A commercial pulse-tube dilution refrigerator was developed by H. Godfrin and Ch. Gianèse (CNRS) and the company l'Air Liquide in 1999. The first commercial machine was delivered to A. Giuliani (Cuoricino experiment) in 2003. With 4 heat exchangers, it had a working temperature well below 8.5 mK. Because of industrial agreements, details were published later.

• Pulse-tube dilution refrigeration below 10 millikelvins, T. Prouvé, H. Godfrin, C. Gianèse, S. Triqueneaux, A. Ravex, J. of Low Temp. Phys. 148 (5-6), 909-914 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-007-9450-6
• Pulse-tube dilution refrigeration below 10 mK for Astrophysics; T. Prouvé, H. Godfrin, C. Gianèse, S. Triqueneaux, A. Ravex, J. of Low Temp. Phys. 151, 640-644 (2008), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-008-9725-6
• Experimental results on the free cooling power available on 4K pulse tube coolers, T. Prouvé, H. Godfrin, C. Gianèse, S. Triqueneaux, A. Ravex, J. of Phys. : Conference Series 150, 012038 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/150/1/012038 (Air Liquide, U.S. Patent 6,915,642; CNRS-Air Liquide French Patent FR07 53945)