Micro thermoelectric coolers for integrated applications [and semiconductor laser packaging]

A different approach for manufacturing arrays of micro thermoelectric coolers using integrated circuit technology is presented. The idea is to fabricate a synthetic wafer containing the necessary thermoelectric elements by first bonding alternating p and n type wafers and then slicing them to obtain an array of thermocouples. This array is then metallized using standard photolithography and evaporation techniques to yield an array of coolers. To demonstrate this approach, six element Bi₂Te₃ cooler arrays were made and characterized. In this paper scaling laws, processing details, practical limitations, and preliminary experimental results are discussed