On-chip all-silicon thermoelectric device

TL;DR

This paper introduces an on-chip silicon thermoelectric device utilizing nanostructures to enhance heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency, with fabrication and simulation details supporting its potential for energy harvesting applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel silicon-based thermoelectric device with nanostructures, combining advanced fabrication techniques and FEM simulations to demonstrate its feasibility for energy scavenging.

Findings

Nanostructures significantly reduce silicon's thermal conductivity.

FEM simulations show effective temperature gradients across nanostructures.

Device design enables potential high-efficiency thermoelectric energy conversion.

Abstract

The low thermal conductivity of silicon nanostructures, with respect to bulk silicon, opens excellent possibilities for thermoelectric applications because it will enable the use of silicon for the high efficient direct conversion of wasted heat into electrical power. This paves the way for the application of silicon devices for energy scavenging and green energy harvesting. We present a device with a large number of nanostructures suspended on a silicon substrate. Top-down techniques for device fabrication based on advanced lithography and anisotropic etching will be discussed. FEM simulations were also carried out to analyze the temperature trend through the nanostructures.