Patent · US Expired

Tiered thermoelectric unit and method of fabricating same

US4687879A · kind A · utility

16Cited by
21References
26Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateApr 25, 1985
Grant dateAug 18, 1987
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 25, 2005

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10N10/17

Abstract

A thermoelectric unit is disclosed having superposed PN semiconductor thermoelectric stages (10, 12) thermally and electrically connected together by a planar ceramic coupler (14) therebetween. The PN semiconductor blocks (16, 18) of each stage are connected by metallic bridging elements (20), which bridging elements are soldered to isolated metallized areas (40) on each face surface of the ceramic coupler (14) to thereby form a thermal path between the stages. Each stage further includes power source tabs (22,24; 26,28), the tabs (26,28) of one stage receiving power from the other stage through electrically conductive metallized edge paths (42, 44) on the ceramic coupler (14). This forms an interstage connection for connecting the PN semiconductor blocks of the one stage to the PN semiconductor blocks of the other stage.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.