Power Enhancement of Silicon Membrane-based Thermoelectric Energy Harvester with Tailored Holey Nanostructures

Abstract

We develop SOI-based silicon membrane thermoelectric power generator with phononic crystal nanostructures. Phononic crystal nanostructures which are well designed periodic structures considering phonon mean free path enhance phonon scattering to reduce thermal conductivity of silicon membranes and improve their thermoelectric figure of merit twice. We demonstrate power enhancement of thermoelectric generator with nanostructure patterning. By using nanoimprint lithography method, we pattern this phononic crystal nanostructures in 3 x 2 mm area of silicon membrane for thermoelectric devices.