High-performance micro scale thermoelectric cooler: An optimized 6-stage cooler

Author

Gross, A. ; Hwang, G. ; Huang, B. ; Yang, H. ; Ghafouri, N. ; Kim, H. ; Uher, C. ; Kaviany, M. ; Najafi, K.

Author_Institution

Center for Wireless Integrated Microsyst. (WIMS), Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

21-25 June 2009

Firstpage

2413

Lastpage

2416

Abstract

We report the design, fabrication and testing of an optimized 6-stage planar thermoelectric (TE) micro cooler producing a DeltaT = 22.3degC at a power consumption of 26 mW, the best performance reported to date for a thermoelectric microcooler. This microcooler has a compact chip-scale design, and utilizes Bi₂Te₃ and Sb₂Te₃ thermoelectric thin films deposited on thermally isolating silicon oxide bridges. The fabricated cooler incorporates a total of 126 thermocouples across 6-stages within a volume of 5 times 5 times 1 mm³.

Keywords

cooling; microfabrication; microsensors; thermocouples; Bi₂Te₃; Sb₂Te₃; SiO; compact chip-scale design; high-performance micro scale thermoelectric cooler; optimized 6-stage planar thermoelectric micro cooler; power 26 mW; power consumption; thermally isolating silicon oxide bridges; thermocouples; thermoelectric thin films; Bismuth; Design optimization; Energy consumption; Fabrication; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon; Sputtering; Tellurium; Testing; Thermoelectricity; Antimony Telluride; Bismuth Telluride; Cryogenic Cooling; Microcooler; Thermoelectrics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference, 2009. TRANSDUCERS 2009. International

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4190-7

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-4193-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SENSOR.2009.5285431

Filename

5285431