Semiconductor device manufacturing: process – Making device or circuit responsive to nonelectrical signal – Thermally responsive
Patent
1996-11-14
1999-04-27
Graybill, David
Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
Making device or circuit responsive to nonelectrical signal
Thermally responsive
438 68, 438109, 438126, 438129, 438458, 438460, H01L 2156, H01L 2160, H01L 2170, H01L 3502
Patent
active
058973303
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thermoelectric power generation unit fabricated by electrically connecting in series a plurality of thermocouples as thermoelectric power generation elements, each fabricated by bonding together dissimilar semiconductors.
BACKGROUND TECHNOLOGY
In a thermocouple, a voltage is developed when different temperatures are applied to the opposite ends thereof. Thermoelectric power generation makes use of the voltage as electric energy.
Thermal power generation has attracted much attention lately as an effective means of converting thermal energy directly into electric energy including the utilization of waste heat.
In particular, a thermoelectric power generation unit used for generation of thermoelectric power has attracted much attention because of its potential for application to micro-sized portable electronic equipment, for example, a wrist watch, since it has advantages over other types of power generators in that it is more adaptable to miniaturization owing to its simple structure composed of a plurality of thermoelectric power generation elements, namely, thermocouples, connected together in series, and further it will pose no problem of battery depletion or leakage of the electrolyte in a battery unlike the case of a redox battery.
FIG. 46 is a perspective view showing an example of a structure of a conventional thermoelectric power generation unit. This thermoelectric power generation unit has a laminated structure as a whole, and comprises a plurality of thermocouples 100 consisting of P type thermoelectric material 101 and N type thermoelectric material 102; a large number of the thermocouples serving as thermoelectric power generation elements are disposed in a predetermined manner and electrically connected in series.
A hot junction 104 and a cold junction 105 of respective thermocouples 100 are disposed on the upper surface and the underside surface, respectively, of the thermoelectric power generation unit with the laminated structure so that power is generated by a difference in temperature between both surfaces.
Thermoelectric power is generated by utilizing the so called "Seebeck Effect" wherein if two dissimilar metals are connected together at opposite ends, and a difference in temperature is maintained between two junctions, a thermoelectric e. m. f. is generated between the two junctions.
Such a thermoelectric power generation unit for generation of thermoelectric power as described above is normally manufactured by the following method.
Firstly, pulverized alloy particles are sintered to form a block of process material; P type and N type thermoelectric semiconductor materials in block form are prepared by what is called the "sintering method".
Then, each block thus formed of respective thermoelectric materials is cut and broken into chips in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped by a dicing saw or the like. The chips with the rectangular parallelepiped shape are arranged in a matrix fashion as shown in FIG. 46 such that a P type thermoelectric material 101 and an N type thermoelectric material 102 are alternately disposed.
Subsequently, a thermoelectric power generation unit comprising a plurality of thermocouples connected in series is fabricated by connecting the opposite ends (at the hot junction 104 and the cold junction 105, respectively) of adjacent chips with a conducting member such as a metal plate or the like, such connection being made mainly by soldering.
Typically, the conventional thermoelectric power generation unit fabricated by the method stated above is of a shape several tens cm square or larger and comprises scores of thermocouples.
The output of a conventional thermocouple composed of a Bi--Te based material, which is believed to have the highest performance among all the thermoelectric materials in practical use, is on the order of 400 .mu.V/.degree.C. per thermocouple.
A wrist watch, representative of portable electronic equipment, is normally used in an environment at around room
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Nagata Yoichi
Watanabe Shigeru
Citizen Watch Co. Ltd.
Graybill David
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