Journal
SENSORS
Volume 10, Issue 2, Pages 1315-1325Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/s100201315
Keywords
thermocouples; micro generators; CMOS-MEMS
Funding
- National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC) for chip simulation
- National Chip Implementation Center (CIC) for chip fabrication
- National Science Council of the Republic of China [NSC 98-2221-E-005-070]
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This work presents a thermoelectric micro generator fabricated by the commercial 0.35 mu m complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process and the post-CMOS process. The micro generator is composed of 24 thermocouples in series. Each thermocouple is constructed by p-type and n-type polysilicon strips. The output power of the generator depends on the temperature difference between the hot and cold parts in the thermocouples. In order to prevent heat-receiving in the cold part in the thermocouples, the cold part is covered with a silicon dioxide layer with low thermal conductivity to insulate the heat source. The hot part of the thermocouples is suspended and connected to an aluminum plate, to increases the heat-receiving area in the hot part. The generator requires a post-CMOS process to release the suspended structures. The post-CMOS process uses an anisotropic dry etching to remove the oxide sacrificial layer and an isotropic dry etching to etch the silicon substrate. Experimental results show that the micro generator has an output voltage of 67 mu V at the temperature difference of 1 K.
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