Investigation on binder for thermoelectric module

A. Suzuki¹, Y. Ishikawa²,T. Komine⁴, H. Shirai³, Y. Hasegawa²

¹Northern Laboratory, SaitamaIndustrial Technology Center, 2-133, Suehiro, Saitama 360-0031, Japan

²Graduate School of Science andEngineering, Saitama University, 255, Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama 338-8570,Japan

³Department ofFunctional Materials Science, Faculty of Engineering, Saitama University, 255,Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama 338-8570, Japan

⁴Department of Media andTelecommunications Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ibaraki University,4-12-1, Nakanarusawa-cho, Hitachi, Ibaraki 316-8511, Japan

Physical andelectric properties of several silver pastes were investigated to replaceconventional Pb-Sn solder used in thermoelectric module. Melting point of theconventional solder is relatively low and temperature property is insufficientfor applying high temperature region. A copper block was glued to theelectrodes using the silver paste to measure the electric property of its, andthe resistances were measured by four probe method. The resistances of thesilver pastes were primarily measured from 15K to 300K, and the magnetic fielddependence was also investigated. The results showedthat the resistance of a silver nano paste waslower than that of any binders used. We can conclude that the nano paste is acandidate as a binder of conventional thermoelectric modules. Besides the nano paste has a possibility to apply tothermoelectric module in high temperature region.