KR102019885B1 - Thermoelectric module and method for manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a thermoelectric module in which the thermoelectric performance of a thermoelectric element is improved, the junction between the substrate and the electrode is stably maintained, and is easy to manufacture and reliable at high temperatures. Thermoelectric module according to an aspect of the present invention, a silicon substrate made of a silicon material; An electrode provided on the silicon substrate; And a thermoelectric material sintered in bulk form, the thermoelectric element being bonded to the electrode.

Description

Thermoelectric module and method for manufacturing the same

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to thermoelectric technology, and more particularly, to a thermoelectric module having improved thermoelectric performance, easy to manufacture, excellent bonding between a substrate and an electrode, and reliable at high temperatures, and a method of manufacturing such a thermoelectric module.

If there is a temperature difference across the material in the solid state, a difference in the concentration of the carrier (electrons or holes) having thermal dependence occurs, which is represented by an electrical phenomenon called thermoelectric power, that is, a thermoelectric phenomenon. As such, thermoelectric phenomena means the reversible and direct conversion of energy between temperature differences and electrical voltages. These thermoelectric phenomena can be classified into thermoelectric power generation, which produces electrical energy, and thermoelectric cooling / heating, which causes a temperature difference between both ends by supplying electricity.

Thermoelectric materials that exhibit thermoelectric phenomena, that is, thermoelectric semiconductors, have been researched due to their environmentally friendly and sustainable advantages in power generation and cooling. In addition, since the power can be directly generated from industrial waste heat, automotive waste heat, etc., and thus useful for improving fuel efficiency or CO ₂ reduction, interest in thermoelectric materials is increasing.

In the thermoelectric module, a pair of p-n thermoelectric elements including a p-type thermoelectric element (TE) for moving holes to move thermal energy and an n-type thermoelectric element for moving electrons to move thermal energy may be a basic unit. The thermoelectric module may include an electrode connecting the p-type thermoelectric element and the n-type thermoelectric element. In addition, the thermoelectric module may be disposed outside the thermoelectric module to electrically insulate components such as electrodes from the outside, and include a substrate to protect the thermoelectric module from external physical or chemical elements.

For thermoelectric modules, various characteristics such as excellent thermoelectric conversion performance of thermoelectric elements, bonding stability between a substrate and an electrode, ease of manufacture, and high temperature reliability are required. Therefore, there is a need for development of a thermoelectric module that can sufficiently satisfy these various characteristics.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, the thermoelectric performance of the thermoelectric element is improved, the bonding between the substrate and the electrode is stably maintained, easy to manufacture and reliable at high temperature and It aims at providing the manufacturing method.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention can be understood by the following description, and will be more clearly understood by the embodiments of the present invention. Also, it will be readily appreciated that the objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized by the means and combinations thereof indicated in the claims.

Thermoelectric module according to the present invention, the silicon substrate made of a silicon material; An electrode provided on the silicon substrate; And a thermoelectric material sintered in bulk form, the thermoelectric element being bonded to the electrode.

Here, the thermoelectric element is composed of n-type thermoelectric material sintered in bulk form, and the n-type thermoelectric element and p-type thermoelectric material bonded to one end of the electrode are sintered in bulk form and bonded to the other end of the electrode. A p-type thermoelectric element can be provided.

In addition, the electrode may include a doped portion formed by partially doping the silicon substrate with impurities.

In addition, the silicon substrate may be p-type and the doping portion may be doped with n-type, or the silicon substrate may be n-type and the doping portion may be doped with p-type.

In addition, a deficient region may be formed between the silicon substrate and the electrode.

Further, the doping concentration of the doping portion may be 10 ¹⁷ / cm ³ to 10 ²⁰ / cm ³ .

The electrode may further include a metal silicide portion between the doping portion and the thermoelectric element.

In addition, the silicon substrate may include an upper substrate and a lower substrate, and the electrode may include one or more lower electrodes patterned on an upper surface of the lower substrate and one or more upper electrodes patterned on a lower surface of the upper substrate. .

In addition, a recess is formed in the electrode, and the thermoelectric element may be joined with the end inserted into the recess.

In addition, the thermoelectric element may have an average length of 1 mm or less in a horizontal cross-sectional area.

In addition, the thermoelectric module manufacturing method according to the present invention comprises the steps of: preparing a silicon substrate made of a silicon material; Providing an electrode on the silicon substrate; Sintering the thermoelectric material to provide a thermoelectric element in bulk form; And bonding the bulk type thermoelectric element to the electrode.

The electrode providing step may include a configuration of doping a portion of the silicon substrate with impurities.

In addition, the electrode providing step may further include a configuration of forming a metal silicide by attaching a metal material to the portion doped with the impurity and then heat treatment.

In addition, the electrode providing step may include a configuration for forming a recess in the electrode, the electrode bonding step may include a configuration for inserting the thermoelectric element of the bulk form in the recess of the electrode.

In addition, the thermoelectric generator according to the present invention includes a thermoelectric module according to the present invention.

The thermoelectric cooling device according to the present invention also includes the thermoelectric module according to the present invention.

According to an aspect of the present invention, by adopting a silicon substrate as a substrate of the thermoelectric module, the substrate may be excellent in thermal conductivity, and monolithic integration with electronic devices such as CMOS may be possible. In particular, in the case of a silicon manufacturing technique, since it is sufficiently developed, the substrate of a thermoelectric module can be manufactured quickly and easily in large quantities, using the advanced silicon manufacturing technique. For example, in order to manufacture a substrate included in a thermoelectric module according to the present invention, a silicon wafer manufacturing technique may be used.

In addition, according to an aspect of the present invention, since the thermoelectric element is configured in a bulk form having a dense structure through sintering, it may have superior thermoelectric performance as compared to a thermoelectric element formed by a conventional deposition method.

In addition, according to an aspect of the present invention, an electrode may be formed by a portion of the silicon substrate is doped with an impurity. Therefore, it can be said that the substrate and the electrode are composed of one body, and thus, the bonding state between the substrate and the electrode can be stably maintained. In particular, according to this aspect of the present invention, the substrate and the electrode can be prevented from being de-laminated due to thermal stress or the like.

In addition, according to an aspect of the present invention, by providing a thermoelectric element of a small size to the electrode, it is possible to reduce the bonding failure between the electrode and the thermoelectric element due to the thermal stress. Moreover, according to this aspect of the present invention, the reliability can be improved at a high temperature.

The following drawings attached to this specification are illustrative of preferred embodiments of the present invention, and together with the detailed description of the invention to serve to further understand the technical spirit of the present invention, the present invention is a matter described in such drawings It should not be construed as limited to.
1 is a view schematically showing a thermoelectric module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration in which a thermoelectric element is included in a thermoelectric module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing a configuration of a thermoelectric module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing some components of a thermoelectric module according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating a method of manufacturing the thermoelectric module configuration of FIG. 4.
6 is a perspective view schematically illustrating a configuration of an electrode formed on a lower substrate in a thermoelectric module according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA ′ of FIG. 6.
FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration in which a thermoelectric element is included in the configuration of FIG. 7.
9 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a method of manufacturing a thermoelectric module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Prior to this, terms or words used in the specification and claims should not be construed as having a conventional or dictionary meaning, and the inventors should properly explain the concept of terms in order to best explain their own invention. Based on the principle that can be defined, it should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention.

Therefore, the embodiments described in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiments of the present invention and do not represent all of the technical spirit of the present invention, various modifications that can be replaced at the time of the present application It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

1 is a view schematically showing a thermoelectric module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a thermoelectric module according to the present invention includes a silicon substrate 100, an electrode 200, and a thermoelectric element 300.

The silicon substrate 100 may be formed in a plate shape and disposed outside the thermoelectric module to protect various components of the thermoelectric module such as the thermoelectric element 300 and maintain electrical insulation between the thermoelectric module and the outside.

In particular, in the thermoelectric module according to the present invention, the silicon substrate 100 is made of a silicon material, and silicon has excellent electrical insulation and high thermal conductivity of about 150 W / mK. Therefore, according to this configuration of the present invention, the flow of heat through the substrate can be further improved as compared with the conventional alumina substrate.

In the case of the silicon substrate 100, since the silicon substrate 100 may be manufactured using a silicon manufacturing process that has been developed a lot, it may be easier to manufacture. For example, the silicon substrate may be manufactured in such a manner that the silicon wafer manufactured by the silicon wafer manufacturing process is cut into an appropriate shape.

In addition, the silicon substrate may have an advantage in that monolithic integration is possible with an electronic device such as a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS).

The electrode 200 has electrical conductivity to allow current to flow. In addition, the electrode 200 may be provided on the silicon substrate 100. In particular, the electrode 200 may be configured to be exposed to at least one surface of the silicon substrate 100 to allow the thermoelectric element 300 to be mounted. In particular, at least two thermoelectric elements 300 may be mounted on the electrode 200, and provide a path through which current can flow between the two thermoelectric elements 300.

The thermoelectric element 300 may be formed of a thermoelectric material, that is, a thermoelectric semiconductor. The thermoelectric semiconductor may include various kinds of thermoelectric materials such as chalcogenide, skutterudite, silicide, clathrate, and half heusler. have. In the thermoelectric module according to the present invention, various kinds of thermoelectric semiconductors known at the time of filing the present invention may be used as the material of the thermoelectric element 300.

In the thermoelectric module according to the present invention, the thermoelectric element 300 may be configured in a form in which the thermoelectric material is sintered in a bulk form. In a conventional thermoelectric module, a thermoelectric element is often configured in an electrode mainly through a vapor deposition method. However, in the thermoelectric module according to the present invention, the thermoelectric element 300 is not configured to be deposited on the electrode 200, but may be sintered first in a bulk form. Then, the bulk type thermoelectric element 300 may be bonded to the electrode 200 thereafter. This will be described with reference to the configuration shown in FIG. 2.

2 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration in which a thermoelectric element 300 is included in a thermoelectric module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the thermoelectric element 300 may be manufactured in a bulk form, as shown in FIG. In this case, the bulk type thermoelectric element 300 includes mixing each raw material of the thermoelectric element 300 to form a mixture, heat treating the mixed raw materials to form a composite, and sintering the composite. It can be manufactured by a manufacturing method. In addition, the thermoelectric material sintered in the sintering step may be formed in a bulk form as shown in FIG.

Next, the thermoelectric material sintered in bulk form as described above may be processed into a size and / or shape suitable for application to a thermoelectric module. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the thermoelectric material sintered in the form of a cylindrical bulk may be cut into a hexahedral bulk of a smaller size.

In addition, the thermoelectric material processed in the smaller bulk form may be bonded to the electrode 200 of the silicon substrate 100 as illustrated in FIG. 2C as the thermoelectric element 300. Here, the bonding between the bulk thermoelectric element 300 and the electrode 200 may be made in various ways such as heat treatment or soldering such as sintering, and the present invention is not limited to a specific bonding method.

As such, according to the configuration in which the thermoelectric element 300 is sintered in a bulk form and then bonded to the electrode 200, since the thermoelectric element 300 has a dense structure through sintering, the thermoelectric element 300 has a conventional thermoelectric element, in particular, in a deposition form. The thermoelectric performance may be improved as compared with the conventional thermoelectric device.

The thermoelectric element 300 may be referred to as a thermoelectric leg or the like, and may include an n-type thermoelectric element 310 and a p-type thermoelectric element 320. Here, the n-type thermoelectric element 310 may be configured in a form in which the n-type thermoelectric material is sintered in a bulk form. In addition, the p-type thermoelectric element 320 may be configured in a form in which the p-type thermoelectric material is sintered in a bulk form. In this case, the n-type thermoelectric material may move a hole to move thermal energy, and the p-type thermoelectric material may move electrons to move thermal energy. As the n-type thermoelectric material and the p-type thermoelectric material, various materials known at the time of filing the present invention may be employed, and thus detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the thermoelectric element 300, an n-type thermoelectric element 310 and a p-type thermoelectric element 320 may be paired to form one basic unit. In addition, two or more n-type thermoelectric elements 310 and / or p-type thermoelectric elements 320 may be provided to form a plurality of pairs. In addition, the n-type thermoelectric element 310 and the p-type thermoelectric element 320 may be alternately arranged to form a plurality of n-type thermoelectric element 310 -p-type thermoelectric element 320 pairs.

The n-type thermoelectric element 310 and the p-type thermoelectric element 320 may be electrically connected to each other through the electrode 200. For example, based on one electrode 200, the n-type thermoelectric element 310 may be bonded to one end of the electrode 200, and the p-type thermoelectric element 320 may be bonded to the other end of the electrode 200. .

Preferably, in the thermoelectric module according to the present invention, the electrode 200 may include a doping portion. Here, the doped part may be referred to as a part in which a part of the silicon substrate 100 is doped with impurities. That is, at least a part of the electrode 200 may be formed in a form doped with a portion of the silicon substrate 100.

3 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing a configuration of a thermoelectric module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the electrode 200 may be formed by doping a portion of the silicon substrate 100 with impurities. For example, the electrode 200 may be formed by doping a portion of the silicon substrate 100 with impurities such as boron (B), phosphorus (P), and arsenic (As), as shown in the drawing. The silicon substrate 100 may be formed near a portion of the surface of the silicon substrate 100. In this case, a method of doping the silicon substrate 100 with impurities may include a method such as ion implantation or thermal diffusion, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to this specific doping method. .

As such, since the electrode 200 of the thermoelectric module according to an aspect of the present invention may be formed by doping a portion of the silicon substrate 100, the electrode 200 and the silicon substrate 100 have a body integrated with each other. I can do it. Therefore, according to this aspect of the invention, the bonding force between the silicon substrate 100 and the electrode 200 is very high, it may not be easily separated from each other. In particular, when a general thermoelectric module is used at a high temperature, a problem may occur in that the substrate and the electrode 200 are de-laminated by thermal stress due to a difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the substrate and the electrode 200. Can be. However, according to the above aspect of the present invention, even when used at a high temperature, the problem of the delamination between the silicon substrate 100 and the electrode 200 may not easily occur.

In addition, according to the configuration in which the electrode 200 is formed by doping a part of the silicon substrate 100 with impurities as in the above embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the surface of the electrode 200 is formed on the silicon substrate 100. It may not protrude in the inner direction compared to the surface of the. Therefore, according to this configuration of the present invention, it is easy to achieve miniaturization of the thermoelectric module. In addition, according to this configuration of the present invention, it is possible to improve the thermoelectric performance by increasing the size of the thermoelectric element 300 with respect to the thermoelectric module of the same size.

Moreover, in the case of conventional thermoelectric modules, the electrodes are often provided in such a way that they are attached to the substrate via an adhesive or formed on the substrate through deposition and plating. However, in the thermoelectric module according to an aspect of the present invention, since the electrode 200 is formed in a shape in which a portion of the silicon substrate 100 is doped as described above, there is no additional layer such as an adhesive, which is excellent in terms of thermal conductivity. Can have characteristics. In addition, in the thermoelectric module according to an aspect of the present invention, it has better electrode adhesion than the method of depositing the electrode 200, it is possible to give a high electrical conductivity compared to the same electrode thickness to the electrode through high concentration doping.

Meanwhile, in the above embodiment, the silicon substrate 100 may be p-type, and the doping part 210 may be doped to n-type. For example, the silicon substrate 100 may be prepared as a p-type semiconductor by adding a group III element such as aluminum (Al), gallium (Ga), or indium (In) as impurities. The electrode 200 may be formed of an n-type semiconductor by doping a portion of a silicon substrate 100 with a high concentration of an element such as phosphorus or arsenic as an impurity. Alternatively, on the contrary, the silicon substrate 100 may be n-type, and the doping part 210 may be doped in a p-type.

Here, a depletion region may be formed between the silicon substrate 100 and the electrode 200, as shown in FIG. 3. For example, when the silicon substrate 100 is p-type and the doping portion 210 of the electrode 200 is n-type, the deficient region 400 may be formed between the silicon substrate 100 and the electrode 200. Can be formed. In particular, the doped portion 210 of the electrode 200 may be formed at a predetermined depth in a thickness direction on a portion of the surface of the silicon substrate 100, and the deficient region 400 may be formed of the doped portion 210 of the electrode 200. It may be configured to surround the lower portion of the.

According to this configuration of the present invention, electrical insulation may be provided between the different electrodes 200 by the deficient region 400. For example, referring to the configuration shown in FIG. 3, each electrode 200 formed on the silicon substrate 100 may be positioned adjacent to each other in the horizontal direction, but the deficient region in the horizontal direction between the electrodes 200. 400 may be located. Furthermore, between the electrodes 200, there may be two or more deficient regions 400, as shown in the figure. Therefore, according to this configuration of the present invention, the insulation between the electrode 200 and the electrode 200 can be stably ensured.

The doping unit 210 of the electrode 200 may be doped at a concentration of approximately 10 ²⁰ / cm ³ . For example, the doping unit 210 may be doped at a concentration of 10 ¹⁷ / cm ³ to 10 ²⁰ / cm ³ . In this case, the electrical conductivity of the electrode 200 can be secured with high stability, the deficient region 400 is formed between the electrode 200 and the silicon substrate 100 to an appropriate thickness, and the doping process is easily performed. Can be.

4 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing some components of a thermoelectric module according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the electrode 200 may further include a metal silicide part 220. The metal silicide part 220 may be disposed between the doping part 210 and the thermoelectric element 300. The metal silicide part 220 may be formed in a form in which metal is siliconized by contact with silicon of the doping part 210. The formation structure of the metal silicide portion 220 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating a method of manufacturing the thermoelectric module configuration of FIG. 4.

First, when the doping portion 210 is formed by doping a portion of the silicon substrate 100 as shown in (a) of FIG. 5, the surface of the doping portion 210 as shown in (b) of FIG. 5. The metal (M) is provided in the. In this case, a material such as copper (Cu) may be used as the metal (M), and may be provided on the surface of the doping unit 210 by deposition or the like. However, the present invention is not limited by the specific metal type or the specific arrangement.

Next, when the heat treatment is performed in a state where the metal (M) is provided on the surface of the doping portion 210, the contact portion between the metal (M) and the doping portion 210 as shown in (c) of FIG. Based on the metal silicidation (metal silicidation) may proceed. For example, a copper silicide may be formed when heat treatment is performed while copper is placed on the doped portion 210.

Here, heat treatment conditions for forming the metal silicide part 220 may be implemented in various ways depending on the situation. For example, the heat treatment for forming the metal silicide part 220 may be performed at a temperature of 200 ° C. to 500 ° C. for a time of 15 seconds to 180 seconds. In this case, the heat treatment may be performed by a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) method.

When the metal silicide portion 220 is formed together with the doping portion 210 as the electrode 200 through the metal silicide formation, the electrode 200 may be disposed on the upper portion of the electrode 200 as shown in FIG. The thermoelectric element 300 may be mounted.

As described above, according to the configuration in which the metal silicide part 220 is provided in the electrode 200, electrical conductivity may be improved to be more useful for applications such as high current thermoelectric modules. That is, in the case of a high current thermoelectric module or the like, high electrical conductivity is required and the thickness of the electrode 200 may be secured to a predetermined level or more. Therefore, when the metal silicide part 220 is included in the electrode 200 in addition to the doping part 210, the electrical conductivity and the thickness of the electrode 200 may be stably secured by a predetermined level or more. In addition, since the metal silicide part 220 has sufficient bonding force with the doping part 210, it is possible to prevent the electrode 200 from being damaged when the thermoelectric module is manufactured or used.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the silicon substrate 100 may include an upper substrate 110 and a lower substrate 120. The electrode 200 may be provided on the upper substrate 110 and the lower substrate 120, respectively. That is, the electrode 200 may include a lower electrode and an upper electrode. Here, the lower electrode is configured in a patterned form through the doping on the upper surface of the lower substrate 120, one or more may be provided on the lower substrate 120. In addition, the upper electrode may be configured to be patterned by doping on the lower surface of the upper substrate 110, and may be provided on one or more of the upper substrates 110.

6 is a perspective view schematically illustrating a configuration of an electrode 200 formed on a lower substrate 120 in a thermoelectric module according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA ′ of FIG. 6, and FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration in which the thermoelectric element 300 is included in the configuration of FIG. 7.

First, referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, a recess C may be formed in the electrode 200. For example, in the case of the electrode 200 formed on the lower substrate 120, a part of the electrode 200 may include a recess C formed to be concave downward. In addition, as shown in FIG. 8, an end portion of the thermoelectric element 300 may be inserted into the recess C to be bonded to the electrode 200.

In particular, as shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, two recesses C may be formed in one electrode 200. The two recesses C may be configured to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance. In this case, one of the two recesses C may be inserted into the p-type thermoelectric element 320, and the other may be inserted into the n-type thermoelectric element 310.

According to this configuration of the present invention, the bonding force between the electrode 200 and the substrate and the thermoelectric element 300 is improved, so that defects due to thermal stress can be reduced. In particular, according to the above-described configuration of the present invention, the junction area between the thermoelectric element 300 and the electrode 200 is improved by the concave portion C, so that the junction between the electrode 200 and the thermoelectric element 300 is better. It becomes firm and the flow of heat conduction and electric conduction between them can be better.

In the above configuration, the recess C in the electrode 200 may be formed in various ways. For example, the concave portion C may etch a portion of the silicon substrate 100 to form a concave portion before the electrode 200 is formed, and may be doped around the concave portion to form the concave portion. The concave portion C may be formed in the electrode 200 while being formed. According to this configuration of the present invention, since the thickness of the electrode 200 can be sufficiently formed even in the state where the recess C is formed, the electrical conductivity of the electrode 200 can be stably ensured. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the concave portion forming method, and the concave portion may be performed by etching the electrode 200 itself after the electrode 200 is formed on the silicon substrate 100.

The size or depth of the recess C may include a size of the thermoelectric module, a size of the thermoelectric element 300, a thickness of the silicon substrate 100 or the electrode 200, and a diffusion barrier layer formed on the thermoelectric element 300. It may be determined differently in consideration of various factors such as the thickness of the). For example, the concave portion may be formed to a thickness of several tens of um to several hundreds of um.

On the other hand, the thermoelectric element 300, the average length of the horizontal cross-sectional area may be configured to 1mm or less.

For example, in the configuration of FIG. 1, each thermoelectric element 300 may have a horizontal cross-sectional area having a square shape, and the length of one side of the square may be 1 mm or less.

According to this configuration of the present invention, it can be configured in the form having a thermoelectric element 300 having a smaller size than the conventional thermoelectric module. Therefore, since the junction area size between each thermoelectric element 300 and the electrode 200 can be reduced, defects due to thermal stress can be reduced. That is, according to this configuration of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the reliability of the thermoelectric module from being deteriorated at high temperatures due to the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion between the silicon substrate 100, the electrode 200, and the thermoelectric element 300.

Further, according to this configuration of the present invention, it can be easy to downsize the thermoelectric module. For example, the silicon substrate 100 of the thermoelectric module may be configured in a square shape, but the length of one side may be configured to be about 10 mm or less. In this case, it may be easier to apply the thermoelectric module to the portion where the mobile device or the curved surface is formed.

9 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a method of manufacturing a thermoelectric module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 9, the method of manufacturing a thermoelectric module according to the present invention may include a silicon substrate preparing step S110, an electrode providing step S120, a thermoelectric element preparing step S130, and a bonding step S140.

The silicon substrate preparing step (S110) is a step of preparing a substrate made of a silicon material. In particular, in the conventional thermoelectric module, the substrate is mainly made of a ceramic material such as alumina, but in the case of the thermoelectric module according to the present invention, the substrate is made of silicon. The S110 step may be applied to various silicon manufacturing techniques developed at the time of filing the present invention, such as a silicon wafer manufacturing process.

The electrode providing step (S120) is a step of providing an electrode on the silicon substrate provided in the step S110. In this case, the step S120 may include a configuration for doping a portion of the silicon substrate with impurities. For example, in step S120, an electrode may be formed by doping some surfaces of the silicon substrate with boron or phosphorus.

Furthermore, the step S120 may further include a configuration of forming a metal silicide by attaching a metal material to a portion doped with an impurity and then performing heat treatment. For example, in the step S120, copper may be formed by attaching copper to the surface of the doped portion with impurities to form copper silicide, thereby including metal silicide in the electrode. As such, the configuration in which the metal silicide is included in the electrode may be described with, for example, the drawing illustrated in FIG. 5.

In the preparing of the thermoelectric element 300 (S130), a thermoelectric element having a bulk shape is prepared. In this case, the bulk type thermoelectric element formed in step S130 may be formed by sintering the synthesized thermoelectric material after synthesizing the raw material by heat treatment. In addition, the thermoelectric element provided in the bulk form as described above may be processed to an appropriate size and shape. For example, a thermoelectric element provided in bulk form as shown in FIG. 2A may be cut into a smaller bulk form as shown in FIG. 2B.

Meanwhile, although the step S130 is shown as being performed after the step S120 in FIG. 9, this is only an example, and the step S130 may be performed simultaneously with or before the step S110 or S120.

The bonding step (S140) is a step of bonding the thermoelectric element 300 having a bulk shape provided in the step S130 to an electrode. In this case, various methods may be used as a method of bonding the thermoelectric element and the electrode. For example, as a method of bonding the thermoelectric element and the electrode, a part bonding method to a silicon substrate may be used.

In the step S140, the thermoelectric element may be bonded to the upper electrode formed on the upper substrate and the lower electrode formed on the lower substrate. In this case, the thermoelectric element may be bonded together to the upper electrode and the lower electrode.

On the other hand, step S120 may include a configuration to form a recess in the electrode. In this case, the step S140 may include a configuration of inserting a thermoelectric element of a bulk type into the recess of the electrode. For example, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the recess may be formed in the electrode, and as illustrated in FIG. 8, the thermoelectric element may be bonded to the recess.

The thermoelectric module according to the present invention can be applied to various devices that apply thermoelectric technology. In particular, the thermoelectric module according to the present invention can be applied to a thermoelectric generator and a thermoelectric cooling device. That is, the thermoelectric generator according to the present invention may include the thermoelectric module according to the present invention described above. In addition, the thermoelectric cooling apparatus according to the present invention may include the thermoelectric module according to the present invention described above.

As described above, although the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, the present invention is not limited thereto and is intended by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Of course, various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of equivalents of the claims to be described.

100: silicon substrate
110: upper substrate, 120: lower substrate
200: electrode
210: doping portion, 220: metal silicide portion
300: thermoelectric element
310: n-type thermoelectric element, 320: p-type thermoelectric element
400: deficient area

Claims (16)

A silicon substrate made of a silicon material;
An electrode provided on the silicon substrate; And
It is composed of a thermoelectric material sintered in a bulk form and has an n-type thermoelectric element and a p-type thermoelectric element, and is a thermoelectric element bonded to the electrode.
Including,
The electrode, the p-type thermoelectric element is bonded to one end and the n-type thermoelectric element is bonded to the other end,
The electrode includes a doped portion formed by doping a portion of the silicon substrate with impurities, wherein at least a portion of the electrode is formed in a form doped with a portion of the silicon substrate. The method of claim 1,
The n-type thermoelectric element is composed of n-type thermoelectric material is sintered in the bulk form, the p-type thermoelectric element is characterized in that the p-type thermoelectric material is configured by sintering in the bulk form.
delete The method of claim 1,
And the silicon substrate is p-type and the doping portion is n-type, or the silicon substrate is n-type and the doping portion is p-type. The method of claim 1,
And a deficiency region is formed between the silicon substrate and the electrode. The method of claim 1,
The doping concentration of the doping portion is a thermoelectric module, characterized in that 10 ¹⁷ / cm ³ to 10 ²⁰ / cm ³ . The method of claim 1,
The electrode further comprises a metal silicide portion between the doping portion and the thermoelectric element. The method of claim 1,
The silicon substrate has an upper substrate and a lower substrate,
And the electrode includes at least one lower electrode patterned on an upper surface of the lower substrate and at least one upper electrode patterned on a lower surface of the upper substrate. The method of claim 1,
And a recess is formed in the electrode, and the thermoelectric element is joined with the end inserted into the recess. The method of claim 1,
The thermoelectric module is a thermoelectric module, characterized in that the average length of the cross-sectional area in the horizontal direction is 1mm or less. A silicon substrate preparing step of preparing a silicon substrate made of a silicon material;
An electrode having an electrode on the silicon substrate;
A thermoelectric element preparing step of sintering the thermoelectric material to provide an n-type thermoelectric element and a p-type thermoelectric element as a bulk thermoelectric element; And
An electrode bonding step of bonding the bulk type thermoelectric element to the electrode;
Including,
In the electrode bonding step, the p-type thermoelectric element is bonded to one end of the electrode, and the n-type thermoelectric element is bonded to the other end of the electrode.
In the electrode providing step, a method of manufacturing a thermoelectric module, characterized in that to form at least a portion of the electrode by doping a portion of the silicon substrate with impurities.
delete The method of claim 11,
The electrode providing step further comprises a structure for forming a metal silicide by attaching a metal material to the portion doped with the impurity and heat treatment. The method of claim 11,
The electrode providing step includes a configuration for forming a recess in the electrode,
The electrode bonding step, the thermoelectric module manufacturing method characterized in that it comprises a configuration for inserting the thermoelectric element of the bulk form in the recess of the electrode. A thermoelectric power generation apparatus comprising the thermoelectric module according to any one of claims 1, 2, and 4 to 10. A thermoelectric cooling apparatus comprising the thermoelectric module according to any one of claims 1, 2, and 4 to 10.

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