Abstract
We report the fabrication of a micro thermoelectric (TE) cooler (μ-TEC), lithographically patterned and integrated with silicon micromachining technologies, with an emphasis on two low temperature eutectic bonding techniques used to connect p- and n-type TE microbeams. The result is a microscale cooling spot suspended only by microbridges made purely of TE material at the center of a silicon frame. With no additional material in contact with the cooling spot, thermal leakage is minimized — the critical requirement in making effective μ-TEC’s. Since TE materials degrade at high temperature (> 400°C), connections of p-n microbeams are limited to only low temperature (∼250°C) bonding methods. The overall fabrication procedure has been designed such that most TE thin films can be used without the need to redesign the remaining process flow of the device as TE materials research continues to advance.