Thermoelectric Characterization and Power Generation Using a Silicon-on-Insulator Substrate

We demonstrate techniques for measuring thermoelectric voltages and generating on-chip power using a silicon-on-insulator substrate. Our design uses lateral heat conduction in the silicon overlayer to establish temperature gradients, which dramatically reduces microfabrication complexity compared to competing designs based on a free-standing membrane. This letter characterizes the thermoelectric power of a metal–semiconductor structure involving a doped SbTe alloy that is relevant for phase-change memory. The thermoelectric power of the SbTe–TiW thermocouple is 24/K, and the power generation output achieves up to 0.56/cm²with a temperature gradient of 18∘K.[2011-0233]