A high performance thin film thermoelectric cooler
Thin film thermoelectric devices with small dimensions have been fabricated using microelectronics technology and operated successfully in the Seebeck mode as sensors or generators. However, they do not operate successfully in the Peltier mode as coolers, because of the thermal bypass provided by the relatively thick substrate upon which the thermoelectric device is fabricated. In this paper a processing sequence is described which dramatically reduces this thermal bypass and facilitates the fabrication of high performance integrated thin film thermoelectric coolers. In the processing sequence a very thin amorphous SiC (or SiO{sub 2}SiN{sub 4}) film is deposited on a silicon substrate using conventional thin film deposition and a membrane formed by removing the silicon substrate over a desired region using chemical etching or micro-machining. Thermoelements are deposited on the membrane using conventional thin film deposition and patterning techniques and configured so that the region which is to be cooled is abutted to the cold junctions of the Peltier thermoelements while the hot junctions are located at the outer peripheral area which rests on the silicon substrate rim. Heat is pumped laterally from the cooled region to the silicon substrate rim and then dissipated vertically through it to an external heat sink. Theoretical calculations of the performance of a cooler described above indicate that a maximum temperature difference of about 40--50K can be achieved with a maximum heat pumping capacity of around 10 milliwatts.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Wales Cardiff (GB)
- OSTI ID:
- 20000306
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 33rd Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, Colorado Springs, CO (US), 08/02/1998--08/06/1998; Other Information: 1 CD-ROM. Operating system required: Windows 3.x; Windows95/NT; Macintosh; UNIX. All systems need 2X CD-ROM drive., PBD: 1998; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 33. intersociety energy conversion engineering conference, by Anghaie, S. [ed.], [2800] pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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