A scalable Si-based micro thermoelectric generator

A new device architecture of micro thermoelectric generator (μ-TEG) is proposed. The μ-TEG utilizes silicon nanowires as the thermoelectric (TE) material, and it can be fabricated by the CMOS-compatible process. It is driven by an “evanescent thermal field” exuding around a heat flow perpendicular to the substrate. We demonstrate experimentally that the TE power increases in the shorter TE leg lengths. The results show that the TE power density is scalable by miniaturizing and integrating the proposed structure.