Thickness Designs for Micro-Thermoelectric Generators Using Three Dimensional PDE Coefficient-COMSOL Multiphysics 4.2a Analysis

S. Seif[1], K. Cadien[1]
[1]Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Published in 2012

Predicting the optimum thickness and gap size between n-type and p-type legs of micro thermoelectric devices are the major challenges in designing micro thermo electric generators. We have reported the gap size and optimal thickness for optimal output power. We found that the gap size should be 0.1 microns; but, depending on fabrication capability, the gap size can be varied from 0.1 to 6 microns, by doing that, the power crossing the gap will degrade from 0.0008 to 0.00055 Watts respectively. We expect that, to obtain 1.0 Watt for the device fabricated using SiGe, we will need to fabricate 625 pairs of micro thermoelectric generators having both n-type and p-type, same as having 1250 thermo legs on a wafer.

ダウンロード