4:15 PM - 4:30 PM
[14p-F206-9] Design of poly-Si thermoelectric device by nano structuring
Keywords:Thermoelectrics, Phononic Crystal, Energy Harvester
We investigate the performance of silicon thermoelectric device with phononic crystal nano structures. Since it is showed that nano-structuring silicon thin film can improve the thermoelectric figure of merit by more than a factor two, Si thermoelectric energy harvesters attract a lot of attention. In this work, we simulated thin film based Si thermoelectric devices by using a finite element method. We investigated the optimal thickness and length of TE elements, and we found that PnC patterning can improve the TE device performance and also allow for a higher density of TE pairs, leading to an increase in output power and mechanical stabillity sufficient for energy harvesting applications.