Title :
Thermoelectric characteristics of n-type polycrystalline silicon carbide and comparison with conventional thermopiles
Author :
Lee, J. ; Lei, M.I. ; Rajgopal, S. ; Mehregany, M.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH, USA
Abstract :
The characteristics of a thermopile made of n-poly-SiC/p-poly-Si junctions are investigated and compared with conventional n/p-poly-Si and Al/p-poly-Si thermopiles. The n-poly-SiC/p-poly-Si thermopile has the highest output voltage (~8 mV with 360 mW heater power) and exhibits a lower contact resistance than an identical thermopile fabricated from n/p-poly-Si. Also significant is that the n-poly-SiC/p-poly-Si junction displays Ohmic behavior, eliminating the need for metallization at the junction to create the necessary contact. As compared to the other two thermopiles, the n-poly-SiC/p-poly-Si thermopile has a superior Seebeck coefficient (S = 2 mV/K) and thermoelectric figure of merit Z of 9.5 times 10-4 T-1 at 250 mW heater power, which is over 20times higher than the others.
Keywords :
Seebeck effect; contact resistance; thermopiles; Ohmic behavior; Seebeck coefficient; contact resistance; n-poly-SiC/p-poly-Si junction; n-type polycrystalline silicon carbide; thermoelectric characteristics; thermopiles; Chemical sensors; Mechanical factors; Micromechanical devices; Optical materials; Silicon carbide; Strips; Temperature sensors; Testing; Thermistors; Thermoelectricity; MEMS; Seebeck; SiC; Thermopile; thermoelectric;
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
DOI :
10.1109/SENSOR.2009.5285709
