A Cr-Ni thermoelectric MEMS energy harvester for low profile applications

Author

Topal, Emre Tan ; Zorlu, Ozge ; Kulah, Haluk ; Muhtaroglu, Ali

Author_Institution

METU-MEMS Center, Middle East Tech. Univ., Ankara, Turkey

fYear

2011

fDate

Nov. 30 2011-Dec. 2 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

Energy harvesting from heat has been investigated for many decades and has found place in many areas such as space industry, aviation, automotive and industrial applications. Thermoelectric energy harvesting has a valuable potential to be used in mobile systems as well. In this study, the design, fabrication and test results of a low cost and low profile MEMS thermoelectric energy harvester composed of Cr and Ni thermocouples is introduced for mobile computing applications. Finite element modelling for performance optimization of the thermoelectric energy harvester, fabrication, and validation have been completed. When a temperature difference of 10 K is supplied across the TE harvester, 1.71 V Seebeck voltage and 1.1 μW electrical power can be generated within a 1cm² area and 600 μm z-dimension thickness limitation.

Keywords

chromium alloys; energy harvesting; finite element analysis; micromechanical devices; nickel alloys; optimisation; thermocouples; Cr-Ni; Seebeck voltage; automotive application; aviation; electrical power; finite element modelling; industrial application; low profile application; mobile computing application; mobile system; power 1.1 muW; size 600 mum; space industry; temperature 10 K; thermoelectric MEMS energy harvester; voltage 1.71 V; z-dimension thickness limitation; Fabrication; Micromechanical devices; Nickel; Resistance; Silicon; Temperature measurement; finite element modeling; heat transfer; micropower generation; thermoelectric energy harvesting;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Aware Computing (ICEAC), 2011 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Istanbul

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-0466-5

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4673-0464-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICEAC.2011.6136675

Filename

6136675