TY - JOUR
T1 - Microfabrication of thermoelectric materials by silicon molding process
AU - Li, Jing Feng
AU - Tanaka, Shuji
AU - Umeki, Toshiya
AU - Sugimoto, Shinya
AU - Esashi, Masayoshi
AU - Watanabe, Ryuzo
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partly supported by Iwate Techno Foundation under Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST) through Regional Science Promoter Program in 2001 to Tohoku University, and also by Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2002AA30240601) and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry, to the first author (J.-F. LI).
PY - 2003/11/15
Y1 - 2003/11/15
N2 - Thermoelectric microgenerators and microcoolers are becoming technologically important for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), but the conventional cutting and assembling techniques have limitation in miniaturizing the dimensions of thermoelectric devices to the micrometer order. We have combined MEMS technology and materials processing into a novel process to manufacture thermoelectric micro-modules with densely aligned fine-scale and high-aspect-ratio P-N elements. Our process consists of the following major steps: (1) micromachining a silicon mold; (2) filling the mold with thermoelectric materials; (3) connecting P- and N-type elements and assembling the whole module. By using the present process, Bi-Sb-Te system thermoelectric elements of 300 μm height and 40 μm cross-sectional width can be fabricated successfully.
AB - Thermoelectric microgenerators and microcoolers are becoming technologically important for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), but the conventional cutting and assembling techniques have limitation in miniaturizing the dimensions of thermoelectric devices to the micrometer order. We have combined MEMS technology and materials processing into a novel process to manufacture thermoelectric micro-modules with densely aligned fine-scale and high-aspect-ratio P-N elements. Our process consists of the following major steps: (1) micromachining a silicon mold; (2) filling the mold with thermoelectric materials; (3) connecting P- and N-type elements and assembling the whole module. By using the present process, Bi-Sb-Te system thermoelectric elements of 300 μm height and 40 μm cross-sectional width can be fabricated successfully.
KW - Materials micro-processing
KW - Microfabrication
KW - Silicon molding
KW - Thermoelectric device
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U2 - 10.1016/S0924-4247(03)00369-8
DO - 10.1016/S0924-4247(03)00369-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0344514654
SN - 0924-4247
VL - 108
SP - 97
EP - 102
JO - Sensors and Actuators A: Physical
JF - Sensors and Actuators A: Physical
IS - 1-3
ER -