Manufacturing and Characterization of a Thermoelectric Energy Harvester Using the CMOS-MEMS Technology

Micromachines

Shih-Wen Peng²  Po-Jen Shih¹  Ching-Liang Dai² 

[1] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung 811, Taiwan;Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan;

关键词: MEMS;    energy harvester;    thermoelectric;    CMOS;   

DOI  :  10.3390/mi6101439

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The fabrication and characterization of a thermoelectric energy harvester using the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology were presented. The thermoelectric energy harvester is composed of eight circular energy harvesting cells, and each cell consists of 25 thermocouples in series. The thermocouples are made of p-type and n-type polysilicons. The output power of the energy harvester relies on the number of the thermocouples. In order to enhance the output power, the energy harvester increases the thermocouple number per area. The energy harvester requires a post-CMOS process to etch the sacrificial silicon dioxide layer and the silicon substrate to release the suspended structures of hot part. The experimental results show that the energy harvester has an output voltage per area of 0.178 mV·mm⁻²·K⁻¹ and a power factor of 1.47 × 10⁻³ pW·mm⁻²·K⁻².

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.