GaN-Based Integrated Lateral Thermoelectric Device for Micro-Power Generation

Lateral thermoelectric devices were fabricated using c -plane GaN thin films grown on sapphire by MOCVD. The device design is appropriate for on-chip integration for power generation in the 1 V and tens of µA range. The fabricated devices were measured to have a maximum open circuit voltage of 0.3 V with a maximum output power of 2.1 µW (=0.15 V × 14 µA) at a relatively small temperature difference (Δ T ) of 30 K and an average temperature ( T avg ) of 508 K. In addition, the suitability of GaN for high temperature thermoelectric applications was confirmed by measurements at 825 K.