On-Chip Fully Integrated Thermoelectric Devices Designed on Standard CMOS Process

We propose fully integrated ON-chip thermoelectric (TE) devices comprising sensors and energy harvesters, and designed using a 0.18-μ mstandard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process. A temperature sensor and thermal energy harvester were designed using a standard CMOS process without any additional micro-electromechanical system or postprocessing. Numerical simulations revealed different optimal unit-cell lengths for the energy harvester and sensor; for utilizing the maximum powerPMaxand open-circuit voltage (VOC), a harvester and sensor require short and long unit cells, respectively. The thermal energy harvester, with a size of140× 140\,\,μ m, generated nanowatt-order power, and the temperature sensor, with a size of100× 150\,\,μ m, generated millivolt-order (VOC). The numerical analysis predicts a 2.5 mV (VOC) as the temperature sensor and 0.8 nW power generation by the TE energy harvester at50~∘ Cthermal input under optimized layout flows. Examples of layout flows are useful to investigate how portable Internet of Things devices work under the everywhere to monitor thermal environments.