In-situ thermoelectric cooling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8933562-B2
Application number	US-201313748821-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2013
Priority date	Jan 24, 2013
Publication date	Jan 13, 2015
Grant date	Jan 13, 2015

Abstract

Methods and structures for thermoelectric cooling of 3D semiconductor structures are disclosed. Thermoelectric vias (TEVs) to form a thermoelectric cooling structure. The TEVs are formed with an etch process similar to that used in forming electrically active through-silicon vias (TSVs). However, the etched cavities are filled with materials that exhibit the thermoelectric effect, instead of a conductive metal as with a traditional electrically active TSV. The thermoelectric materials are arranged such that when a voltage is applied to them, the thermoelectric cooling structure carries heat away from the interior of the structure from the junction where the thermoelectric materials are electrically connected.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A semiconductor structure comprising:
a die comprised of a semiconductor material, and comprising a back-end-of-line wiring structure formed thereon;
a conductive region disposed within the die;
a first thermoelectric via (TEV) originating from a top surface of the semiconductor structure and terminating at the conductive region;
a second TEV originating from the top surface and terminating at the conductive region, wherein the first TEV and second TEV…

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Kinser Emily
• Farooq Mukta G
• Rolick-Digiacomio Joann M
• Tejwani Charu

Classifications

• H10W20/0234

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10W20/0242

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10W72/20

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10W40/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10W20/20

  Electricity · mapped topic