Si<sub>0.97</sub>Ge<sub>0.03</sub> microelectronic thermoelectric generators with high power and voltage densities.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32868757.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-18122-3 and PMC identifier 7458905.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Microelectronic thermoelectric generators are one potential solution to energizing energy autonomous electronics, such as internet-of-things sensors, that must carry their own power source. However, thermoelectric generators with the mm<sup>2</sup> footprint area necessary for on-chip integration made from high thermoelectric figure-of-merit materials have been unable to produce the voltage and power levels required to run Si electronics using common temperature differences. We present microelectronic thermoelectric generators using Si<sub>0.97</sub>Ge<sub>0.03</sub>, made by standard Si processing, with high voltage and power generation densities that are comparable to or better than generators using high figure-of-merit materials. These Si-based thermoelectric generators have <1 mm<sup>2</sup> areas and can energize off-the-shelf sensor integrated circuits using temperature differences ≤25 K near room temperature. These generators can be directly integrated with Si circuits and scaled up in area to generate voltages and powers competitive with existing thermoelectric technologies, but in what should be a far more cost-effective manner.