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Abstract
Heavily boron-doped silicon layers and boron etch-stop techniques have been widely used in the fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). This paper provides an introduction to the fabrication process of nanoscale silicon thermoelectric devices. Low-dimensional structures such as silicon nanowire (SiNW) have been considered as a promising alternative for thermoelectric applications in order to achieve a higher thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) than bulk silicon. Here, heavily boron-doped silicon layers and boron etch-stop processes for the fabrication of suspended SiNWs will be discussed in detail, including boron diffusion, electron beam lithography, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching and tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) etch-stop processes. A 7 μm long nanowire structure with a height of 280 nm and a width of 55 nm was achieved, indicating that the proposed technique is useful for nanoscale fabrication. Furthermore, a SiNW thermoelectric device has also been demonstrated, and its performance shows an obvious reduction in thermal conductivity.
Highlights
Structures at micro- and nanoscale introduce various new properties, which have become one of the most important research topics in recent decades
By carefully analyzing our thermoelectric device structure and results, we found that the lower ZT value is mainly caused by the smaller Seebeck coefficient and larger thermal conductivity
A top-down process using heavy boron-doping has been demonstrated for fabricate silicon nanowire and thermoelectric devices
Summary
Structures at micro- and nanoscale introduce various new properties, which have become one of the most important research topics in recent decades. Research into micro- and nanoscale structures has affected almost every field of our lives, including healthcare, biomedicine, information processing, etc. Thermoelectric materials can directly interconvert energies between heat and electricity based on the Seebeck and Peltier effects, which have no noise, no pollution, and extensive application prospects [1]. Compared with bulk silicon (Si) structures, one-dimensional Si nanowire (SiNW). Possesses a higher Seebeck coefficient a lower thermal conductivity, and the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) value is several times higher [2,3,4]. Si is a potential thermoelectric material due to its low cost and the compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS). It is of great significance to develop techniques with high reproducibility, high yield and excellent uniformity for fabricating a number of nanostructures with various shapes and dimensions
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