Laminated thermo element
First Claim
1. A thermoelement which comprises:
- a stack of a plurality of films, each film having a composition which is different from a composition of either one of its neighboring films;
at least one of said films being aluminum;
said stack of films having a first end surface and a last end surface;
a first substrate contacting said first end surface and a second substrate contacting said last end surface;
said first and second substrates being composed of material selected front a group of materials which consists of p type and n type semiconductors.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A thermoelement (leg) of a thermocouple for use in peltier heating or generation of power by the Seebeck effect including a plurality of interleaved films wherein compositions of neighboring films are selected to create Kapitza boundaries between the films such as to reduce thermal conductivity but provide adequate electrical conductivity. The plurality of interleaved films includes a semiductor with suitable doping to establish required extrinsic conductivity and metals having dissimilar lattices such as aluminum and tungsten abutting one another. The practical number of films in the composite to establish the effect is ten. A preferred thickness of the films is less than twenty thousand Angstroms.
53 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A thermoelement which comprises:
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a stack of a plurality of films, each film having a composition which is different from a composition of either one of its neighboring films; at least one of said films being aluminum; said stack of films having a first end surface and a last end surface; a first substrate contacting said first end surface and a second substrate contacting said last end surface; said first and second substrates being composed of material selected front a group of materials which consists of p type and n type semiconductors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10)
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8. A thermocouple of the type having a first leg and a second leg, said first leg comprising:
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a first stack of a first plurality of films, each film having a composition which is different from a composition of either one of its neighboring films; at least one of said first plurality of films being aluminum; said stack of films having a first end surface and a second end surface a first substrate contacting said first end surface and a second substrate contacting said second end surface; said first and second substrates being composed of a p type semiconductor; and said second leg comprising; a second stack of a second plurality of films, each film having a composition which is different from a composition of either one of its neighboring films; at least one of said first plurality of films being aluminum; said second stack of films having a third end surface and a fourth end surface; a third substrate contacting said third end surface and a fourth substrate contacting said fourth end surface; said third and fourth substrates being composed of an n type semiconductor means for forming an electrical contact between said second and third substrates a first terminal connected to said first substrate and a second terminal connected to said fourth substrate.
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9. A thermoelement which comprises
a stack of a plurality of tungsten layers interleaved with layers of lead telluride and having a pair of outside layers being lead telluride.
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11. A thermoelement which comprises
a stack of a plurality of metal layers, each metal layer interleaved with a layer of lead telluride, said stack having a pair of outside layers being lead telluride wherein each metal layers is selected from a group of metals that consists of tungsten, molybdenum and tantalum.
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12. A thermoelement which comprises:
a stack of a plurality of layers of tungsten interleaved with layers of lead telluride, said stack having outside layers of tungsten.
Specification