KR20060088321A - Thermoelectric module manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is a thin-film thermoelectric module that can be formed by aligning a pair of thermoelectric units cut for each electrode size to the opposite electrode substrate and flip chip bonding, and cutting each unit of the thermoelectric module to a desired chip size. A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, the method comprising: flip chip bonding an upper electrode plate on which a thermocouple of an electrically connected p-type semiconductor and an n-type semiconductor is attached in a lattice form to a lower electrode plate on which a predetermined wiring is printed. It is a thermoelectric module manufacturing method characterized in that.

Thermoelectric, Seebeck, Peltier, Thermoelectric Module, Semiconductor

Description

Thermoelectric module manufacturing method             

1A and 1B are perspective views showing a p-type semiconductor and an n-type semiconductor stacked on a substrate, respectively

2A and 2B are perspective views of a state in which several substrates on which the semiconductor of FIG. 1 is stacked are immediately cut;

3 is a perspective view of the upper electrode plate;

4 is a perspective view illustrating a state in which the cut semiconductors of FIG. 2 are stacked and bonded on the upper electrode plate of FIG. 3.

5 is a perspective view of a state in which the substrate is removed from FIG.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating a thermoelectric chip array formed by dicing the semiconductor of FIG. 5. FIG.

7 is a plan view of a lower electrode plate of Example 1;

8 is a plan view of a thermoelectric module completed by bonding the thermoelectric chip array of FIG. 6 to the lower electrode plate of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a bird's eye view of a substrate having a lower electrode plate removed to show a connection state of the electrode of FIG. 8; FIG.

10A and 10B are plan views of the lower electrode plate and the completed thermoelectric module of Example 2;

11 is a plan view of a lower electrode plate of Example 3;

12A and 12B are plan views of the lower electrode plate and the completed thermoelectric module of Example 4;

13 is a plan view of a lower electrode plate of Example 5

14A and 14B are plan views of the lower electrode plate and the completed thermoelectric module of Example 6;

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10, 11: substrate 20: p-type semiconductor

21: n-type semiconductor 30,31,33,35: upper electrode plate

40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45: lower electrode plate

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thin-film thermoelectric module, and more particularly, to flip chip bonding by aligning a pair of thermoelectric units cut for each electrode size to opposite electrode substrates, and to each unit of a thermoelectric module. It relates to a method for manufacturing a thin film thermoelectric module that can be formed by cutting to a desired chip size.

Thermoelectric modules have two main applications: power generation using the Seebeck effect and cooling using the Peltier effect.

Seebeck effect is the phenomenon that electromotive force occurs when the temperature difference between both ends is used and it is used for power of small electronic device (eg clock) using waste heat generation, body temperature, and space probe using radiation half-heat.

On the contrary, when a current flows at both ends, the heat moves along the charge, and one side is cooled and the other side is heated, which is called the Peltier effect. By using this, it is possible to make a cooling device using purely electrons without mechanical operation.

Cooling using the thermoelectric module is much lower than the conventional compressor type cooler in terms of overall cooling efficiency, but has relatively low mechanical noise and is not low in cold or low temperature (5-10 degrees Celsius) or small refrigerators. It is widely used because of its relatively high cooling efficiency.

Most of the thermoelectric modules used in this way are existing bulk thermoelectric modules, and thin-film thermoelectric modules are still in the research stage and are not commercialized.

However, the thin film type can be used where the cooling density is relatively high compared to the bulk type when the same material is used, and requires local cooling.

In addition, a recent announcement raises expectations for thin films stacked in a specific superlattice structure, where the efficiency is nearly equal to that of a compressor-type cooler.

Here, the maximum cooling power is simply expressed as the following equation, and as shown in the following equation, it can be seen that the cooling power is inversely proportional to the thickness for the same area.

이고,Where K is the total thermal conductance

ego,

λ is the thermal conductance, A is the cross-sectional area, and t is the thickness of the thermoelectric module.

Therefore, it can be seen that the cooling density is higher in the thin film type.

However, in order to manufacture a thin film thermoelectric module to a desired size, the process (Process) to the entire substrate causes the following problems.

First, the nonuniformity of the thin film results in a significant decrease in yield in discarding the entire module due to defects occurring in a portion of the entire substrate.

Second, in the design of the module, the thermoelectric material in the remaining parts other than the desired place is etched or discarded, which wastes a lot of material.

Therefore, first of all, to solve this problem by dividing into a minimum thermoelectric module unit that implements a given thermoelectric module.

Third, in the case of flip chip bonding with thermoelectric chip array by depositing p-type and n-type on the electrode plate as in the module manufacturing method, a relatively large area of the thermoelectric film is placed on the electrode plate. As a result, there is a problem that a thermoelectric thin film is lifted during the process due to a difference in thermal expansion coefficient.

Fourth, there is a difficulty in heating both substrates at the same time.

An object of the present invention devised to solve the above problems is to flip chip bonding by aligning a pair of thermoelectric units cut for each electrode size to the opposite electrode substrate, and desired each unit of the thermoelectric module The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a thin film thermoelectric module that can be formed by cutting according to chip size.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a thermoelectric module, in which a predetermined wiring is printed on an upper electrode plate having a thermocouple of p-type semiconductors and n-type semiconductors electrically connected in a lattice form. The method of fabricating a thermoelectric module comprising flip chip bonding to a lower electrode plate.

The lower electrode plate is characterized in that the wiring is formed so that the thermocouple is connected in series with each other.

The lower electrode plate may include one or more thermoelectric unit pairs, and one or more electrode pairs of a positive electrode and a negative electrode to which a voltage is applied are formed.

In addition, when the lower electrode plate is formed with two or more thermoelectric unit pairs and two or more electrode pairs are formed, cutting each thermoelectric unit pair to be separated.

The upper electrode plate may include bonding a plurality of bar-shaped p-type semiconductors and n-type semiconductors stacked on a substrate, etching the substrate, and lengths of the bar-shaped p-type semiconductors and n-type semiconductors. And dicing in a direction perpendicular to the direction to form a lattice shape.

In addition, a plurality of bar-type p-type semiconductors and n-type semiconductors are formed by laminating a p-type semiconductor or an n-type semiconductor on a substrate, and dicing or scribing the substrate on which the semiconductor is stacked. It is characterized by.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail through examples and drawings.

A first feature of the present invention is to coat a thin film on a substrate that is thermally matched with the thermal semiconductor to be raised and then later etch the substrate.

A second aspect of the present invention is to flip-chip bonding by aligning a pair of thermoelectric units cut for each electrode size to the opposite electrode substrate.

A third feature of the invention is to etch the substrate of each unit of the module described above and to etch or cut the unit to the desired chip size.

The size of the unit thermoelectric chip and the thickness of the thermoelectric thin film vary depending on the application, but the size is about 100-1000 microns and the thickness is about 5-50 microns.

Example 1

As shown in FIG. 1, the thin films of the thermoelectric units of the p-type semiconductor 20 and the n-type semiconductor 21 are placed on the substrates 10 and 11 that are well matched with each other.

As shown in FIG. 2, the substrates 10 and 11 are diced or scribed to fit the width of the unit chip, thereby obtaining a thermoelectric unit having a desired size.

Then, the upper electrode plate 30 is manufactured by coating and etching a metal electrode plate on the upper portion as shown in FIG. 3.

In addition, an upper portion of the upper electrode plate 30 is coated with a tin (Sn) -based alloy or tin for bonding with the thermoelectric thin film.

As shown in FIG. 4, the thermoelectric units of the p-type semiconductor 20 and the thermoelectric units of the n-type semiconductor 21 are alternately arranged on the upper electrode plate 30 to be bonded.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the substrates 10 and 11 on which the thermoelectric unit thin films of the p-type semiconductor 20 and the n-type semiconductor 21 are mounted are etched and removed.

Then, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the thermoelectric unit thin films of the p-type semiconductor 20 and the n-type semiconductor 21 are diced to form an upper electrode plate 30 in which a desired thermoelectric chip array is arranged.

As shown in FIG. 7, the lower electrode plate 40 is decorated. In this case, the uppermost part of the lower electrode plate 40 is coated with tin alloy or tin.

The lower electrode plate 40 has a pair of positive and negative electrodes for applying a voltage, and since the number of pairs of thermoelectric units is even, both the positive electrode and the negative electrode are formed below.

As shown in FIG. 8, the upper electrode plate 30 is flip chip bonded to the lower electrode plate 40 to complete a thermoelectric module.

9 is a bird's-eye view showing a state in which a portion except for an electrode plate portion of the lower substrate 40 is removed to show the connection state of the electrode.

Example 2

As shown in FIG. 10, in Example 2, since the number of pairs of thermoelectric units is odd, unlike in Example 1, in the lower electrode plate 41, the anode is formed at the top and the cathode is formed at the bottom, respectively.

The upper electrode plate 31 is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the lower electrode plate 41 and the upper electrode plate 31 are also bonded by flip chip bonding.

Example 3

As shown in FIG. 11, in Example 3, unlike in Example 1, several anodes and cathodes were formed on the lower electrode plate 42 in each thermoelectric unit pair.

The upper electrode plate is the same as the first embodiment, and the lower electrode plate 41 and the upper electrode plate 31 are also bonded by flip chip bonding.

Example 4

12A and 12B, each thermoelectric unit pair of Example 3 is cut to form several thermoelectric modules.

The upper electrode plate is the same as the first embodiment, and the lower electrode plate 41 and the upper electrode plate 31 are also bonded by flip chip bonding.

Example 5

As shown in FIG. 13, in Example 5, six anodes and cathodes were formed on the lower electrode plate 44 for each pair of thermoelectric units, unlike in Example 1. As shown in FIG.

The upper electrode plate is the same as the first embodiment, and the lower electrode plate 41 and the upper electrode plate 31 are also bonded by flip chip bonding.

Example 6

In Example 6, as shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B, two thermoelectric unit pairs of Example 5 are cut to form several thermoelectric modules.

The upper electrode plate is the same as the first embodiment, and the lower electrode plate 41 and the upper electrode plate 31 are also bonded by flip chip bonding.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described specific preferred embodiments, and various modifications can be made by any person having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the gist of the present invention claimed in the claims. Of course, such changes will fall within the scope of the claims.

Through the present invention described above, by selecting the thermoelectric unit of good quality, it is possible to prevent a problem that may occur due to defects, and the yield is remarkably increased by producing by the thermoelectric module unit.

In addition, by cutting and arranging as many thermoelectric materials as desired in advance, the conventional substrates can be prevented from being etched on the entire substrate.

In addition, since the transfer plate is split and transferred to the electrode plate, a relatively large area of the thermal thin film is placed on the electrode plate, thereby eliminating the problem of the thin film being lifted up during the process due to the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion.                     

In addition, since the bonding is performed only on one side, the conventional problem of heating both substrates at the same time is solved.

Claims (6)

In the thermoelectric module manufacturing method, And flip chip bonding the upper electrode plate to which the thermocouples of the p-type semiconductor and the n-type semiconductor, which are electrically connected, are attached in a lattice-like arrangement to the lower electrode plate on which a predetermined wiring is printed. How to make. The method of claim 1, wherein the lower electrode plate is formed with wires such that the thermocouples are connected in series with each other. The method of claim 1, wherein the lower electrode plate has one or more thermoelectric unit pairs formed therein, and one or more electrode pairs of a positive electrode and a negative electrode to which a voltage is applied are formed. The method of claim 3, wherein the lower electrode plate includes cutting two thermoelectric unit pairs when the two or more electrode pairs are formed and separating the respective thermoelectric unit pairs. The method of claim 1, wherein the upper electrode plate is bonded to a plurality of bar-shaped p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor stacked on the substrate, the step of etching the substrate, the bar-shaped p-type semiconductor and n A method of fabricating a thermoelectric module, comprising forming a lattice form by dicing in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the semiconductor. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of bar-type p-type semiconductors and n-type semiconductors comprise laminating a p-type semiconductor or an n-type semiconductor on a substrate, and dicing or scribing the substrate on which the semiconductor is stacked. Thermoelectric module manufacturing method characterized in that it comprises a.

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