Patent Description:
Recently, thermoelectric elements have been used in various fields, and as an electronic cooling method using a Peltier effect, the thermoelectric elements have been used in various household appliances such as wine cellars and water purifiers from cosmetic refrigerators.

In particular, due to the expansion of energy harvesting technology, a thermoelectric energy harvesting field, which generates electricity with a small temperature difference using a Seebeck effect of the thermoelectric element, has been also widely expanded and applied, resulting in increasing the demand for thermoelectric elements.

However, there are limitations that cannot be solved in manufacturing the thermoelectric element, so that there is a limitation that the manufacturing process is complicated and the manufacturing cost is lowered, and thus, there is a limitation in lowering the price of the element.

A conventional manufacturing process of the thermoelectric element starts from preparing a P-type thermoelectric element substrate and an N-type thermoelectric element substrate from an ingot manufactured through a sintering process of the material, and cutting the substrates into desired sizes.

The cut-off pellets are usually cut into sizes of <NUM> wide × <NUM> long × <NUM> thick, P-type pellets and N-type pellets are transferred and mounted on an electrode plate of a substrate on which electrical connection patterns are formed, and upper and lower substrates are soldered to complete the thermoelectric element.

Since the performance of a thermoelectric element results in how many P-type and N-type pellets are mounted in a unit area, the performance may be improved if the P-type and N-type pellets can be made small and mounted at high density.

However, with the conventional manufacturing method, since there is a limitation in cutting and processing into very small pellets due to the characteristics of a thermoelectric material, most of the pellets are at a level of several mm, and thus, there is a problem that it is very difficult to cut and process pellets at the level of several µm.

On the other hand, in a conventional manufacturing technology, there is a problem in that a large manufacturing time is required for a small surface mounting operation in which hundreds of small pellets are manually moved and placed on an electrode plate, resulting in high manufacturing period and labor costs.

In order to solve this problem, there are cases in which a surface-mount device (SMD) is used for automation and mass-production, but there is a limit to the pellet size that can be made with the SMD device, which also has limitations in automatically surface mounting smaller pellets.

An example of these limitations can be found in patent application <CIT> (<CIT>) where a method for manufacturing a thermoelectric device for use in a thermoelectric power generator taking advantage of the Seebeck effect, or a cooler taking advantage of the Peltier effect, and, particularly, it refers to a method of fabricating a small sized thermoelectric device incorporating a plurality of thermocouples is disclosed. The device is composed of a grooved block composed of N-type thermoelectric semiconductor and grooved block composed of P-type thermoelectric semiconductor, leading to an integrated block formed by fitting and adhering both grooved blocks, filling up gaps in fitting parts with adhesive insulation members.

In other words, with a conventional thermoelectric element manufacturing method, the manufacturing cost of manufacturing the thermoelectric element is high, and high-density surface mounting is not possible with the cutting processing method, and thus there is a limit to manufacturing a high-density thermoelectric element.

An aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a bulk thermoelectric device implemented to reduce manufacturing costs, as well as to simplify a manufacturing process, by cutting and processing only the depth of a µm level of P-type and N-type substrates, which are thermoelectric materials, to maintain a root layer at the bottom thereof.

The technical objects of the present invention are not restricted to the technical object mentioned as above. Other unmentioned technical objects will be apparently appreciated by those skilled in the art by referencing the following description.

The present invention is given by claim <NUM>. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a bulk thermoelectric device includes the steps of cutting two slices of thermoelectric element material and preparing one slice as a P-type substrate and the other slice as an N-type substrate; sawing one side of each P-type and N-type substrate to form pellets in the form of quadrangular protrusions in a row separated by quadrangular depressions, such that the pellets of the P-type substrate and the pellets of the N-type substrate are adapted to be alternatively engaged with each other, and wherein the unsawed portion on the opposite side of each substrate forms a base layer; attaching a support pedestal, having a predetermined height, in a longitudinal direction along an upper central portion of a processed pellet; forming a fastening groove on the bottom portion of a depression in a form corresponding to the shape of the support pedestal such that the fastening groove and the support pedestal engage with each other; inserting and bonding the support pedestal into the fastening groove when the sawed top of the P-type substrate and the sawed top of the N-type substrate engage with each other, after applying the sawed top of the P-type substrate and the sawed top of the N-type substrate with an insulating resin; polishing or grinding the base layer of the P-type substrate and the N-type substrate until the support pedestal is removed, forming only a P/N layer after the insulating resin is cured; and assembling ceramic substrates with conductive electrode pads (PAD) on the top and the bottom of the P/N layer to complete the thermoelectric device.

According to an aspect of the present invention described above, it is possible to cut a thermoelectric material with weak brittleness in units of µm, which is much smaller than that of a conventional cutting in units of mm, and particularly, to be completely processed so as to remain on the substrate as it is, not in the form of pellets. Accordingly, there is an innovative manufacturing process saving effect and a labor cost saving effect, such that there is no need to move and mount separate pellets one by one.

While thousands of pellets are attached to the P-type and N-type substrates, the P-type and N-type substrates can be bonded and assembled up and down, so that there is no need for separate surface mounting.

In other words, since it is possible to manufacture pellet units directly without moving for separate surface mounting by making thermoelectric elements having a root layer on the P-type/N-type thermoelectric material substrate by micro-cutting, there is no need to move small elements one by one while solving the limitation of the cutting processing size and it is possible to simplify the manufacturing process and reduce manufacturing cost by greatly improving the efficiency per unit area.

The detailed description of the present invention to be described below refers to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate specific embodiments in which the present invention may be implemented. These embodiments will be described in detail sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to implement the present invention. It should be understood that various embodiments of the present invention are different from each other, but need not be mutually exclusive. Accordingly, the detailed description to be described below is not intended to be taken in a limiting meaning, and the scope of the present invention, if properly described, is limited only by the appended claims. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to the same or similar functions over several aspects.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating a method for manufacturing a thermoelectric element in the related art.

The thermoelectric element manufactured by this method is made of a P-type and an N-type of a Bi-Te-based plate, not silicon-based, but there is a problem that the Bi-Te-based plate is weakly brittle and cracks as described above may easily occur during sawing.

Accordingly, the method of manufacturing the thermoelectric element in the related art had problems in limitations in that <NUM>) manufacturing costs increase due to excessive labor costs or equipment costs due to manual work or use of SMD equipment when moving and mounting the pellets, <NUM>) it takes a lot of time to move and mount pellets one by one, and <NUM>) when processing fine pellets, the defect rate increases, and it is difficult to manufacture high-density thermoelectric materials due to difficulty in moving and mounting. In addition, according to the method of manufacturing the thermoelectric element in the related art, <NUM>) the thermoelectric elements are usually mounted on a substrate with an area of <NUM> wide × <NUM> long with <NUM> P-type or N-type pellets (<NUM> couples of P-type and N-type pellets to be bound). As the method of manufacturing the thermoelectric element in the related art, since there is a limitation to manufacturing P-type or N-type pellets up to a size of at least <NUM> × <NUM> × <NUM>, there is a limit that only at least <NUM>/cm<NUM> of P-type or N-type pellets may be mounted on a substrate with an area of <NUM> wide × <NUM> long.

<FIG> is a flowchart illustrating a method of manufacturing a bulk thermoelectric device according to an embodiment.

Referring to <FIG>, in a method of manufacturing a bulk thermoelectric device according to an embodiment, first, a material of the thermoelectric element is sliced to form two types of P-type and N-type substrates (<NUM>).

When the substrates are fabricated in step <NUM> described above, P-type pellets formed on the P-type substrate and N-type pellets formed on the N-type substrate are bonded to each other to alternately engage with each other, and then the bottom of each substrate is polished (ground) to form a P/N layer in which the P-type pellets and the N-type pellets are arranged alternately (<NUM>).

When the P/N layer is formed in step <NUM> described above, ceramic substrates having conductive electrode pads PAD formed on the top and the bottom of the P/N layer are assembled to complete a thermoelectric element (<NUM>).

In an embodiment, in step <NUM> of completing the thermoelectric element, the ceramic substrates may be assembled on the top and the bottom of the P/N layer using reflow soldering.

The bulk thermoelectric device manufactured by the method of manufacturing the bulk-type thermoelectric element having the above-described steps consists of two metal plates or semiconductor plates to generate an electromotive force due to a Seebeck effect.

An element that generates the Seebeck effect refers to a circuit element that generates a thermoelectromotive force by bonding both ends of a metal or semiconductor and giving a temperature difference thereto.

This Seebeck effect (or phenomenon) for Cu, Bi, or Sb was discovered by T. Seebeck in <NUM>, and thermocouple type thermometers that measure a thermoelectromotive force and convert the measured thermoelectromotive force to a temperature are widely used industrially, and various thermocouple types have been developed up to cryogenic temperature from high temperature.

Thermocouples for temperature measurement include silver-gold (added iron), chromel-gold (added iron), copper-constantan, chromel-constantan, chromel-alumel, platinum/rhodium-platinum, tungsten-tungsten rhenium, etc..

On the other hand, since semiconductors have a thermoelectric power (Seebeck coefficient) <NUM> times larger than that of metals, the efficiency of generating a thermoelectromotive force using the Seebeck coefficient is relatively high.

After all, the Seebeck effect is simply an effect opposite to a Peltier effect, and is a phenomenon in which electricity is generated when a temperature difference is applied to both sides.

When the temperature difference occurs at both ends of heat absorption and heat dissipation, in the case of an n-type semiconductor, electrons in a high-temperature end have higher kinetic energy than electrons in a low-temperature end, so that the electrons in the high-temperature end diffuse to the low-temperature end to reduce energy.

As the electrons move to the low-temperature end, the low-temperature end is charged with "negative (-)" and the high-temperature end is charged with "positive (+)" to generate a potential difference between the two ends, which becomes a Seebeck voltage.

The generated Seebeck voltage acts in a direction to send electrons back to the high-temperature end, and becomes in equilibrium when the Seebeck potential is precisely balanced with a thermal driving force that causes electrons to move to the low-temperature end.

The Seebeck voltage (V) generated by the temperature difference between the two ends is called a thermoelectromotive force.

In the case of the bulk thermoelectric device assembled in step <NUM> described above, an electromotive force of about <NUM> mW may be generated.

According to the method of manufacturing the bulk thermoelectric device having the steps described above, it is possible to cut a thermoelectric material with weak brittleness in units of µm, which is much smaller than that of a conventional cutting in units of mm, and particularly, to be completely processed so as to remain on the substrate as it is, not in the form of pellets. Accordingly, there are an innovative manufacturing process saving effect and a labor cost saving effect that there is no need to move and mount separate pellets one by one.

In addition, while thousands of pellets are attached to the P-type and N-type substrates, the P-type and N-type substrates can be bonded and assembled up and down, so that there is no need for separate surface mounting.

That is, since it is possible to manufacture pellet units directly without moving for separate surface mounting by making thermoelectric elements having a root layer on the P-type/N-type thermoelectric material substrate by micro-cutting, there is no need to move small elements one by one while solving the limitation of the cutting processing size and it is possible to simplify the manufacturing process and reduce manufacturing cost by greatly improving the efficiency per unit area.

<FIG> is a flowchart illustrating an example of forming a P/N layer of <FIG>.

Referring to <FIG>, in the forming of the P/N layer (<NUM>), each substrate is sawed with pellets in the form of a quadrangular protrusion formed in a row on the top of the base layer so that the top of the P-type substrate and the top of the N-type substrate engage with each other (see <FIG>) (<NUM>).

At this time, the size of the pellet is preferably formed of <NUM> to <NUM> wide × <NUM> to <NUM> long × <NUM> to <NUM> thick.

Pellets of thermoelectric elements manufactured by the conventional method had limitations in manufacturing due to the limitation in the size of <NUM> × <NUM> × <NUM>. However, according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a more efficient thermoelectric element because cracks or the like are not generated even when pellets having a smaller size than the conventional method are manufactured.

The top of the P-type substrate and the top of the N-type substrate, which are sawed in step <NUM>, are bonded to each other with an insulating resin made of a urethane or silicone resin material (<NUM>).

In an embodiment, the bonding step (<NUM>) may include applying an insulating resin to the top of the lower substrate, and then fastening the remaining substrate to engage with the top of the substrate on which the insulating resin is applied.

When the insulating resin used in step <NUM> described above is cured, the base layer is polished (ground) so that only the P/N layer is left (<NUM>), thereby removing the base layer unnecessary for manufacturing the thermoelectric element and leaving only the P/N layer.

The forming of the P/N layer (<NUM>) having the steps as described above may further include a step (not illustrated for convenience of description) of forming a pad fastening groove at a depth corresponding to the height of the electrode pad on the top and the bottom of the P/N layer on which the electrode pad is positioned so that the electrode pad may be fastened, after the polishing (grinding) of the base layer.

As the pad fastening groove is formed, a space that may occur between the P/N layer and the ceramic substrate due to a height difference in the electrode pad may be removed, thereby further improving the thermoelectric efficiency of the thermoelectric element.

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating a method of manufacturing a bulk thermoelectric device according to an embodiment.

Referring to <FIG>, unlike the conventional method of manufacturing the substrate by:.

<FIG> is a flowchart illustrating another example of forming the P/N layer of <FIG>.

Referring to <FIG>, the forming of the P/N layer (<NUM>) includes attaching a support pedestal having a predetermined height in a longitudinal direction along an upper central portion of the processed pellet (<NUM>), after the sawing (<NUM>).

At this time, the support pedestal is inserted into a fastening groove to be described below to be prevented from shaking during bonding by the resin, thereby assisting to form a more robust and regular P/N layer.

When the support pedestal is attached in step <NUM> described above, a fastening groove having a shape corresponding to the shape of the support pedestal is formed in the bottom portion of the groove formed between the support pedestal and an opposed pellet (<NUM>).

In an embodiment, in the step (<NUM>) of bonding with the insulating resin, after applying the insulating resin, when the top of the P-type substrate and the top of the N-type substrate sawed engage with each other, the support pedestal is inserted into the fastening groove to prevent each substrate from moving.

In an embodiment, in the step (<NUM>) of polishing (grinding) the base layer by polishing, the support pedestal is polished when polishing the base layer, the base layer unnecessary for manufacturing the thermoelectric element is removed and only the P/N layer is left.

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating a method of manufacturing a bulk thermoelectric device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claim 1:
A method of manufacturing a bulk thermoelectric device comprising:
cutting two slices of thermoelectric element material and preparing one slice as a P-type substrate and the other slice as an N-type substrate;
sawing one side of each P-type and N-type substrate to form pellets (<NUM>) in the form of quadrangular protrusions in a row separated by quadrangular depressions, such that the pellets of the P-type substrate and the pellets of the N-type substrate are adapted to be alternatively engaged with each other, and wherein the unsawed portion on the opposite side of each substrate forms a base layer;
attaching a support pedestal (<NUM>), having a predetermined height, in a longitudinal direction along an upper central portion of a processed pellet;
forming a fastening groove (<NUM>) on the bottom portion of a depression in a form corresponding to the shape of the support pedestal such that the fastening groove and the support pedestal engage with each other;
inserting and bonding the support pedestal into the fastening groove (<NUM>) when the sawed top of the P-type substrate and the sawed top of the N-type substrate engage with each other, after applying the sawed top of the P-type substrate and the sawed top of the N-type substrate with an insulating resin;
polishing or grinding the base layer of the P-type substrate and the N-type substrate (<NUM>) until the support pedestal is removed, forming only a P/N layer after the insulating resin is cured; and
assembling ceramic substrates with conductive electrode pads (PAD) on the top and the bottom of the P/N layer to complete the thermoelectric device.