Method for manufacturing thermoelectric modules

Claim 1

Method for manufacturing thermoelectric modules by collective welding of the thermocouples from blocks of P type and N type material having a parallelepipedic shape and having the same dimensions and a predetermined granulometry comprising: cutting respective masses of semiconductor material parallelepipedic blocks parallel to one of their faces in strips of P type material and strips of N type material; assembling alternately the same number of strips of P type and of N type material; inserting between the adjacent faces of said strips insulating sheets which are very thin and have the same width as said strips to form a parallelepipedical P and N stack; cutting the P and N stack into thin slices in a direction perpendicular to the faces of the P and N strips to form a series of rods; forming a parallelepipedic stack by assembling in parallel a certain number of these slices after having inserted between the adjacent faces, very thin insulating sheets so as to place successively a slice beginning with a P rod and a slice beginning by an N rod; establishing conductive connections between the P and N rods; characterized in that the insulating sheets inserted between the P strips and N strips during the first inserting step have a height slightly greater than that of the strips and are arranged alternately so as to be substantially flush with one face of the P stack and N stack and overlapping slightly on the other face, and in that the insulating sheets inserted between each slide during the second inserting step overlap slightly on the two opposite faces of the stack and have, at their lower corner, a rectangular cutaway part arranged alternately on the right hand and on the left of the stack, said step of establishing connections being effected by dipping of the said two opposite faces of the stack in brazing material.