JPH02294082A - Thermoelectric device and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a thermoelectric device which is easy to realize a large area and be manufactured by constituting a thermoelectric element in the manner in which a semiconductor exhibiting Peltier effect is pinched by metal rods, and inserting the elements in a thermal insulating wall for supporting. CONSTITUTION:A semiconductor 8 exhibiting peltier effect is bonded between a pair of rods 9, 9' of copper and the like, thereby forming a thermoelectric element. Said elements are electrically connected in series, and inserted in a thermal insulating wall 13 to be retained. When a voltage is applied from electrode terminals 10, 10', and a current is made to flow, heat is generated or absorbed by Peltier effect of the contact surface between the copper rod 9 or the copper rod 9' and the semiconductor 8. The heat is conducted by the copper rods 9, 9', and travels outside the thermal insulating wall 13, thereby heating or cooling the external environment. Thereby a thermoelectric device having a large area can be manufactured by a simple process.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Field of Application The present invention is applicable to air conditioners that electrically cool or heat air using the Peltier effect, or power generation devices that generate electricity using temperature differences due to the Seebeck effect. Concerning improvements in thermoelectric devices.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a thermoelectric device that converts heat into electricity or electricity into heat converts a P-type semiconductor 4 or an N-type semiconductor into a P-type semiconductor 4 or an N-type semiconductor using a metal plate 1 and a metal plate 2, as shown in a conventional example in FIG. semiconductor 3
It is constructed by electrically connecting the elements that sandwich the metal in series or in parallel, and generates electricity by the temperature difference between the metals on both sides, or cools and heats by applying voltage and passing current.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In such a conventional thermoelectric device, as shown in FIG. It is attached and held. In addition, in the figure, 5 and 6 are terminals.

Bonding between the semiconductors 3 and 4 and the metal plates 1 and 2 is generally performed using solder, but when attempting to construct a large-area thermoelectric device, solder and the semiconductors 3 are used due to reasons such as warping of the substrate 7. , 4 were easily dislocated, and the reliability was low.

Further, the heating side or the cooling side must be supported by the substrate 7, but the substrate 7 becomes a thermal resistance and increases the temperature difference between the heating side and the cooling side of the thermoelectric element, thereby significantly reducing the performance of the thermoelectric element.

In addition, in such a configuration, in order to increase the heat transfer area, it is necessary to newly bond a radiation fin to the substrate 7 side or the opposite side, but since the bonding surface is limited, the fin efficiency is reduced. Not only is this problem worse, but there is also the problem that efficiency is lowered due to contact resistance, and there is also the problem that the weight is increased.

In view of these problems of the prior art, the present invention provides a thermoelectric device with high performance and easy manufacture by providing a configuration that allows easy construction of a large-area thermoelectric device and a large heat transfer area. The purpose of this invention is to provide a manufacturing method thereof.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the thermoelectric device according to the present invention has the following features:
A thermoelectric element, in which a semiconductor that produces the Peltier effect is sandwiched and bonded between metal rods (copper rods, etc., can also be used, and linear ones are also included), is attached to an insulating wall or two plates with an air or vacuum layer in between. In order to realize the means for inserting and holding and configuring, and the configuration, metal is attached to a plate or a heat insulating material in a predetermined pattern, and a through hole is provided, and the Peltier effect is applied to the through hole. A manufacturing method is used in which a rod-shaped thermoelectric element is inserted in which a semiconductor that generates ion is sandwiched between metals, and then the deposited metal and the rod-shaped metal are electrically joined by a method such as soldering.

Furthermore, a configuration means is also used in which the thermoelectric elements are partially replaced with metal rods and the thermoelectric elements and metal rods are electrically connected in series.

Effects The effects obtained by the above configuration are as follows.

l. A thermal element is constructed by sandwiching a semiconductor between metal rods, and a heat insulating wall is provided, so there is little heat leakage from the high temperature side to the low temperature side.

2. Since heat is radiated or absorbed from the rod-shaped metal, not only is the heat transfer rate high, but the heat transfer area is wide, so the heat radiation or heat absorption efficiency is high.

3. The manufacturing method uses a manufacturing method in which an electrode pattern with holes is created in advance on a heat insulating wall or plate, and the thermoelectric element is inserted into it and electrically connected, so the substrate and thermoelectric element can be manufactured separately, so each process can be separated. can be done, the process is easier,
Yield is also improved.

4. Since a method of inserting and supporting a rod-shaped thermoelectric element into a heat insulating wall is used, it is easy to increase the area.

Example Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 show a schematic configuration of a thermoelectric device according to an embodiment of the present invention, with FIG. 1 being a plan view and FIG. 2 being an XY sectional view of FIG. 1.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, a semiconductor 8 that produces a Peltier effect is joined between a pair of copper rods 9 and 91 to constitute one thermoelectric element. These thermoelectric elements are electrically connected to each other in series, and the semiconductors 8 are of N type and P type. A voltage is applied to this thermoelectric device from electrode terminals 10, 10', and by passing a current, heat is generated or absorbed by the Peltier effect at the contact surface between the copper rod 9 or the copper plate 9' and the semiconductor 8. This heat is the copper rod 9, 9
' is conducted to the outside of the heat insulating material 13, which serves as a heat insulating wall, and heats or cools the external environment.

This heat insulating material 13 is provided with a plurality of holes penetrating the heat insulating material 13 in advance, and a copper film 11 is plated surrounding the holes. A manufacturing method was used in which the thermoelectric element was inserted into this hole, and the copper pl There is. In this embodiment, mfll is attached onto the heat insulating material 13 using a plating method, but the same effect can be achieved by using a metal tape or the like coated with an adhesive material. Further, although this embodiment shows an example of electrically series connection, it is of course possible to partially connect them in parallel.

With such a manufacturing method and configuration, unlike the conventional method, individual thermoelectric elements and heat insulating materials can be manufactured separately, so a thermoelectric device with a very large area can be manufactured with a high yield through simple steps.

In addition, since the lengths of the copper rods 9 and 8' can be adjusted appropriately according to the load, appropriate heat radiation or heat absorption is possible, and by changing the thickness of the insulation material, it is possible to change the temperature from the high-temperature atmosphere to the low-temperature atmosphere. The amount of heat leaking to the side can be reduced. It is easy to attach fins or the like to the copper supports 9 and 9' as the case requires, and the heat load can be dealt with very flexibly.

3 and 4 show a thermoelectric device according to another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a front view, and FIG. 4 is a
It is OO'B sectional view.

In this embodiment, air ffl3 is transferred to two insulating materials 14, 14.
′ and used as an insulating wall. A copper film 15'' is patterned on these two insulating materials 14, 14', and a thermoelectric element made of copper wires 1B, 1'6'' and a semiconductor 17 and a copper rod 18 are electrically connected in series. There is. The semiconductor 17 connected in series with the copper rod 18 has the same type of P type or N type. By passing the current, the heat generated by the Peltier effect at the interface between the semiconductor 17 and the copper wires 1θ, 16' is conducted through the respective copper wires 1B, 18' and cools the atmosphere outside the insulating materials 14, 14'. , heat. Further, the copper wire 16' is in contact with the outer wall 19, and air is made to flow between the outer wall 19 and the insulating material 14 using a fan or the like to improve the heat transfer coefficient.

In this example, copper Ia! Although the thermoelectric device can be configured with a single semiconductor using 18, P-type and N-type semiconductors may also be used. In this case, a thermoelectric element is inserted at the position of the copper rod 18. In this embodiment, the insulating materials 14, 1
Since the hole is opened at 4', a dead area where airflow stagnates is less likely to occur, and the heat transfer coefficient is improved.

The method of manufacturing the thermoelectric device of the present embodiment is based on an insulating plate 1 in which a copper film 15 is patterned in advance by a method such as plating, and holes are opened.
4, 14' and a separate process, copper wire 16,
16' and a thermoelectric element consisting of a semiconductor 17 and a copper rod 18 are inserted, and the copper film 15 on the insulating materials 14 and 14' is bonded with solder 21.
join with.

The copper rod 18 and the thermoelectric element are provided with positioning protrusions to determine the 14° spacing between the insulation materials 14. Further, in this embodiment, the air layer 14 is used as a heat insulating layer, but the gap may be made into a vacuum layer using a similar method.

In this embodiment, the two insulating materials 14 and 14' constitute a heat insulating wall, so the thermoelectric device can be extremely light and have excellent heat insulation properties.

Furthermore, since the copper rod 18 and the thermoelectric element are connected in series, the thermoelectric device can be made using only the semiconductor 17 made of a single material, and the process can be simplified. Further, since the gap between the air layers 13 is determined by the positioning protrusion, it is possible to maintain an optimum gap distance over a wide range.

In this example, by changing the length of the copper wire 1θ, 16" according to the amount of heat radiation on the cooling side and the heat generation side, the optimal heat radiation state can be achieved from an economic and efficiency standpoint. Also, on the heat radiation side In other words, an outer wall is provided on the heating side to allow air to flow, resulting in a cooling and heating device that has good performance and is inexpensive.
It also has a high degree of freedom regarding loads.

Of course, the thermoelectric element having this configuration according to the present invention can also be used when converting heat from a heat source into electricity by the Seebeck effect, and it goes without saying that similar effects will be produced in that case as well.

Effects of the Invention As explained above, the thermal N device according to the present invention has a structure in which a thermoelectric element sandwiched and bonded to semiconductor gold [FI or metal wires] that produces a Peltier effect is inserted and held in a heat insulating wall, The manufacturing method is to attach metal in a predetermined pattern to a plate or heat insulating material, make a through hole in the part where the metal is attached, and then create a rod-shaped thermoelectric device in which a semiconductor that produces the Peltier effect is sandwiched between the metals. Insert the element,
Since the attached metal and the thermoelectric element are electrically connected, the following effects are achieved.

! ．． Thermoelectric devices with extremely large areas can be mass-produced at low cost using simple processes.

2. Since the heat transfer area is wide, the temperature difference between it and the external load is small, improving heat dissipation efficiency.

3. Since the high-temperature side and the low-temperature side can be separated by a heat insulating wall, the amount of heat leaking from the high-temperature side to the low-temperature side is reduced, improving overall cooling or heating performance.

4. The structure and manufacturing method are such that a metal film is formed on an insulating substrate, and then the thermoelectric element and the substrate are bonded and held using soldering, etc., so it is not only easy to manufacture, but also inexpensive. , it is possible to manufacture thermoelectric elements that are strong, lightweight, and have good performance.

In other words, by implementing the present invention, it is extremely strong, lightweight,
Moreover, it is possible to stably mass-produce large-area thermoelectric devices that are highly economical and have high cooling or heating performance.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of a thermoelectric device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an XY sectional view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a front view showing a thermoelectric device according to another embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4 is an AOO"B cutaway diagram of Figure 3, and Figure 5 is a perspective view of a conventional thermoelectric device. 8, 17...Semiconductor, 13...Insulating wall, te, te
'． ．． ．． Copper wire, 14, 14'. ．． ．． Insulating material, 11
115. ．． ．． Copper film. Name of agent: Patent attorney Shigetaka Awano (1 person) Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A thermoelectric device characterized in that a thermoelectric element, in which a semiconductor that produces a Peltier effect is sandwiched and bonded to metal rods, is inserted and held in a heat insulating wall. (2) The thermoelectric device according to claim 1, wherein the heat insulating wall into which the thermoelectric element is inserted has a structure in which an air layer or a vacuum layer is sandwiched between two plates. (3) Metal is attached to a plate or heat insulating material in a predetermined pattern, a through hole is provided in the part where the metal is attached, and a rod-shaped thermoelectric element in which a semiconductor that produces a Peltier effect is sandwiched between metals is inserted. A method for manufacturing a thermoelectric device, characterized in that the deposited metal and the rod-shaped metal are then electrically joined. (4) A thermoelectric element is inserted into the through hole of two plates to which metal is attached in a predetermined pattern, and the metal part of the thermoelectric element and the attached metal are joined by soldering to hold the plates together. and providing a space between the two plates.