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Flip-chip bonded micro-thermoelectric coolers for on-chip thermal management in integrated photonics
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Date
2025-09-26
Authors
Kaur, Rajvinder
Tanwar, Amit
O’Brien, Peter
Razeeb, Kafil M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd.
Published Version
Abstract
Thermal management is a key challenge in high-density integrated photonics, where local hotspots destabilize the wavelength of the photonic device and degrade overall performance. Unlike conventional cooling strategies, micro-thermoelectric coolers (micro-TECs) offer a compact, solid-state, microfabrication-compatible solution for localized, on-chip cooling and precise thermal management. In this work, micro-TEC devices are fabricated on Si/SiO2 substrate using electrodeposited n-type Bi2Te3 and p-type CuSbTe thermoelectric materials. The 4.4 × 4.4 mm2-sized devices comprise n- and p-type thermoelectric leg-pairs with a 150 × 150 µm2 cross-sectional area and 13 µm height, which are electrically connected by top and bottom Au interconnects via a flip-chip bonding approach. The fabricated devices achieve net cooling of 1.2 K at 100 mA and 0.71 K at 75 mA at room temperature. Results indicate that high electrical contact resistance at the bonding interfaces limits the cooling performance. Further, COMSOL simulations predict a net cooling of 6.18 K when the leg height is increased to 60 µm and the contact resistivity is reduced to 10-11 Ω.m2. This study provides quantitative design guidelines for micro-TEC interfaces and geometry and demonstrates the feasibility of direct micro-TEC integration onto silicon platforms for on-chip thermal management of photonic components.
Description
Keywords
Micro-thermoelectric cooler , Electrodeposition , Thin film , Flip-chip bonding
Citation
Kaur, R., Tanwar, A., O’Brien, P. and Razeeb, K. M. (2025) 'Flip-chip bonded micro-thermoelectric coolers for on-chip thermal management of integrated photonic devices', Applied Thermal Engineering, 280(5), 128468 (10pp). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2025.128468