Abstract
Thermoelectric thin films have been widely explored for thermal-to-electrical energy conversion or solid-state cooling, because they can remove heat from integrated circuit (IC) chips or micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) devices without involving any moving mechanical parts. In this paper, we report using silicon diode-based temperature sensors and specific thermoelectric devices to characterize the merit of thermoelectric thin films. The silicon diode temperature sensors and thermoelectric devices were fabricated using microfabrication techniques. Specifically, e-beam evaporation was used to grow the thermoelectric thin film of Sb2Te3 (100 nm thick). The Seebeck coefficient and the merit of the Sb2Te3 thin film were measured or determined. The fabrication of silicon diode temperature sensors and thermoelectric devices are compatible with the integrated circuit fabrication.
Highlights
Managing heat flux has been one of the most important technical challenges that the current integrated circuit (IC) or MEMS industry is facing, because the rising temperature limits the miniaturization of IC or MEMS devices and decreases their lifetime [1]
The silicon diode temperature sensor centered on the bottom, and the platinum (Pt) serpentine resistor temperature sensor centered on the top
The fabricated cross-plane TE device with pads for the outside contacts has a dimension of 0.7 cm × 0.7 cm, where the active area covered by the Sb2Te3 film is 200 μm × 200 μm
Summary
Managing heat flux has been one of the most important technical challenges that the current integrated circuit (IC) or MEMS industry is facing, because the rising temperature limits the miniaturization of IC or MEMS devices and decreases their lifetime [1]. In some TE material based devices, it is desired to frequently in-field monitor the ZT change of the TE materials in order to diagnose the device lifetime or quality degradation in use To measure the ZT value of the in-plane integrated TE device, two diode-based temperature sensors are designed at the left side and the right side of the device (Figure 3). The ZT value is obtained by measuring the maximum temperature difference achieved in the TE device These microstructures are fully compatible to IC or MEMS fabrication steps, and can be built in to any TE film based devices
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