Micro thermoelectric device and manufacturing method thereof

• US 20050150538A1
• Filed: 07/30/2004
• Published: 07/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Liu, Chun-Kai, Cheng, Jen-Hau
• Granted Patent: US 8,426,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 136/205
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0002 Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 10/01 Manufacture or treatment
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 10/17 characterised by the structure or configuration of the cell or thermocouple forming the device

Abstract

The present invention discloses a micro thermoelectric device and manufacturing method thereof, and the manufacturing method comprises the steps of providing a substrate and depositing a barrier layer on the substrate, using the barrier layer as a mask to etch a pattern on the barrier layer to form a plurality of openings, adopting a reactive ion etching (RIE) method to remove the barrier layer and smoothing the curvature of the corner of each groove, depositing a metal conductive wire layer, coating an adhesive layer in said each groove by a surface mount technology (SMT), placing a plurality of thermoelectric materials individually into each groove, repeating steps (a) to (f) to produce another substrate, and connecting the two substrates into an aligned position.

Claims

1. A micro thermoelectric device, comprising:

a first substrate, having a first surface and a plurality of first grooves disposed on said first surface;

a first metal conductive wire layer, disposed on said first surface and each of said first grooves;

a second substrate, having a second surface corresponding to said first surface, and a plurality of second grooves disposed on said second surface and corresponding to said plurality of first grooves;

a second metal conductive wire layer, disposed on said second surface and each of said second grooves;

a plurality of adhesive layers, individually disposed in said first grooves and said second grooves;

a plurality of thermoelectric materials, being individually inseted into said first grooves and said second grooves.

2. The micro thermoelectric device of claim 1, wherein said first grooves and said second grooves are in a cubic shape.

3. The micro thermoelectric device of claim 1, wherein said thermoelectric material is in a cubic shape.

4. The micro thermoelectric device of claim 1, wherein said first grooves and said second grooves are in a spherical shape.

5. The micro thermoelectric device of claim 1, wherein said thermoelectric material is in a spherical shape.

6. A method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a substrate and depositing a barrier layer on said substrate;

(b) etching a pattern on said barrier layer to form a plurality of openings;

(c) using said barrier layer as a mask to perform an anisotropic etching to produce a plurality of grooves;

(d) adopting a reactive ion etching (RIE) method to remove said barrier layer, and smoothing the curvature of the corner of said each groove;

(e) depositing a metal conductive wire layer;

(f) coating an adhesive layer in said each groove by a surface mount technology (SMT);

(g) placing a plurality of thermoelectric materials individually into said each groove;

(h) repeating steps (a) to (f) to produce another substrate; and

(i) connecting said two substrates into an aligned position.

7. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said barrier layer is made of silicon nitride (Si₃N₄).

8. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said barrier layer is substantially 3000 Å

thick.

9. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said barrier layer as described in step (b) is etched by a reactive ion etching (RIE) method.

10. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said anisotropic etching as described in step (c) uses potassium hydroxide (KOH) as the etching liquid.

11. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said each groove is in a cubic shape.

12. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said metal conductive wire layer produced as described in step (e) comprises the steps of:

(e1) depositing an aluminum conductive wire by sputtering;

(e2) plating a nickel layer on said aluminum conductive wire layer by a plating-free method; and

(e3) plating a gold layer on said nickel layer to form said metal conductive wire layer.

13. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said metal conductive wire layer produced as described in step (e) deposits an aluminum conductive wire by sputtering to form said metal conductive wire layer.

14. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said adhesive layer is made of tin.

15. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said adhesive layer is made of a silver paste.

16. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said each thermoelectric material is in a cubic shape.

17. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said connecting method as described in step (i) adopts a flip-chip bonder.

25. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 6, wherein said metal conductive wire layer produced as described in step (e) deposits an aluminum conductive wire by sputtering to form said metal conductive wire layer.

18. A method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a substrate and depositing a barrier layer on said substrate;

(b) etching a pattern on said barrier layer to form a plurality of openings;

(c) using said barrier layer as a mask to perform an Isotropic etching to produce a plurality of grooves;

(d) adopting a reactive ion etching (RIE) method to remove said barrier layer, and smoothing the curvature of the corner of said each groove.

(e) depositing a metal conductive wire layer;

(f) coating an adhesive layer in said each groove by a surface mount technology (SMT);

(g) placing a plurality of thermoelectric materials individually into said each groove;

(h) repeating steps (a) to (f) to produce another substrate; and

(i) connecting said two substrates into an aligned position.

19. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said barrier layer is made of silicon nitride (Si₃N₄).

20. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said barrier layer is substantially 3000 Å

thick.

21. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said barrier layer as described in step (b) is etched by a reactive ion etching (RIE) method.

22. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said isotropic etching as described in step (c) adopts an isotropic wet hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid (HNA) etching system for the etching.

23. The micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said each groove is in a spherical shape.

24. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said metal conductive wire layer produced as described in step (e) comprises the steps of:

(e1) depositing an aluminum conductive wire by sputtering;

(e2) plating a nickel layer on said aluminum conductive wire layer by a plating-free method; and

(e3) plating a gold layer on said nickel layer to form said metal conductive wire layer.

26. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said adhesive layer is made of tin.

27. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said adhesive layer is made of a silver paste.

28. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said each thermoelectric material is in a spherical shape.

29. The method of manufacturing micro thermoelectric device of claim 18, wherein said connecting method as described in step (i) adopts a flip-chip bonder.

30. A micro thermoelectric device, comprising:

a first substrate and a second substrate, at least one of said first and second substrate comprising a plurality of groove;

a metal conductive wire layer, disposed on the surface of said first and second substrate, and each of said grooves;

a plurality of adhesive layers, individually disposed in each of said grooves;

a plurality of thermoelectric materials, being individually inseted into each of said grooves.

31. The micro thermoelectric device of claim 30, wherein said grooves are in a cubic shape.

32. The micro thermoelectric device of claim 30, wherein said thermoelectric material is in a cubic shape.

33. The micro thermoelectric device of claim 30, wherein said grooves are in a spherical shape.

34. The micro thermoelectric device of claim 30, wherein said thermoelectric material is in a spherical shape.