Development of Scalable Micro Thermoelectric Devices

2017-0223-02

researcher's name: about researcher WATANABE, Takanobu Professor
affiliation: Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Fundamental Science and Engineering Department of Electronic and Photonic Systems
research field: Electronic materials/Electric materials,Mathematical physics/Fundamental condensed matter physics,Nanostructural chemistry
keyword

background

● Energy Harvester (EH) is a key device for the ”Internet-of-Things” society.
● Thermoelectric (TE) Generation is an ultimate technology to semipermanently generate electric power from a temperature difference.

summary

● Si nanowire is used as the thermoelectric material.
● Miniaturized TE device fabricated by the Si-LSI process capable of mass-production

predominance

● No etching process of Si substrate required.
● No toxic materials included.
● The power generation density increases with shrinking the device size.

application/development

● Trillion sensor network
● Body Area Network (BAN)
● Smart buildings

material

Mechanism of thermoelectric power generation (left) Conceptual structure of the TE power generator fabricated on silicon chip (right).
(left) High TE power density device structure and (right) a simulated temperature distribution in the device.
Scaling laws of (left) proposed structure and (right) conventional vertical structure

same researcher's seeds

posted: 2017/02/23