Performance Comparison of CMOS and MEMS Based Thermal Energy Harvesters Using Finite Element Analysis

In this paper, thermal energy harvesters (TEH) or Thermoelectric Power Generators (TPG) are designed to harvest electrical energy from heat. These Thermoelectric Power Generators are compatible to CMOS and MEMS fabrication technology. Detailed analysis of various models of thermoelectric power generators using FEA software are studied to achieve enhanced performance. Comparison has been made for both CMOS and MEMS based TPGs. From the analysis, it is observed that MEMS based TPG model produces 43.76% more output voltage than CMOS based TPG when the temperature difference across hot and cold junction is 5K. Analysis reveals that 91.23% increase in output power is also achieved with MEMS based TPG model. The design and simulation results provides a very good overview of the power generation capability of the TEG, which may be useful in future design of improved thermal energy harvesters.