Thermoelectric elements using metal-insulator transition material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9178126-B2
Application number	US-201313905950-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 30, 2013
Priority date	Jul 5, 2012
Publication date	Nov 3, 2015
Grant date	Nov 3, 2015

Abstract

Provided is a thermoelectric device including a first electrode, a substrate electrically connected to the first electrode, a thin film on the substrate, and a second electrode on the thin film. The substrate and the thin film may be configured to exhibit a metallic property at a temperature over a critical temperature, thereby having a thermoelectric power of the device that is higher than that of a semiconductor junction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A thermoelectric device, comprising:
a first electrode;
a substrate disposed directly on the first electrode;
a thin film disposed directly on the substrate; and
a second electrode disposed directly on the thin film,
wherein the thin film comprises a metal-insulating transition (MIT) material, and
wherein the substrate and the thin film are configured in such a way that majority carriers thereof have types different from each other.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is doped with conductive impurities, and wherein the conductive impurities include acceptors, which are one of boron or gallium, or donors, which are one of arsenic and phosphorus.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the MIT material comprises a vanadium oxide of VO 2 or V 2 O 3 .

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein a metallic property is an electric property measured from a thermoelectric current and a thermal voltage between the thin film and the substrate.

5. The device of claim 3 , wherein the vanadium oxide of VO 2 exhibits a metallic property at 67° C.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the MIT material includes a vanadium oxide of VO 2 , and wherein the thin film has a thickness of about 100 nm.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the MIT material includes a vanadium oxide of V 2 O 3 , and wherein the thin film includes a top surface having an area of about 25 mm 2 .

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises silicon doped with conductive impurities and a concentration of the conductive impurities is about 10 18 cm −3 .

9. A thermoelectric device comprising:
a substrate;
a first electrode disposed directly on the substrate;
a thin film disposed directly on the substrate and separated from the first electrode; and
a second electrode disposed directly on the thin film,
wherein the thin film comprises a metal-insulating transition (MIT) material, and
wherein the substrate and the thin film are configured in such a way that majority carriers thereof have types different from each other.

10. The device of claim 9 , wherein a bottom surface of the first electrode is coplanar with a bottom surface of the thin film.

11. The device of claim 9 , wherein the substrate comprises silicon that is doped with impurities and a concentration of the impurities is about 10 18 cm −3 .

12. The device of claim 11 , wherein the MIT material includes a vanadium oxide of VO 2 , and wherein the thin film has a thickness of about 100 nm.

13. The device of claim 9 , wherein the MIT material includes a vanadium oxide of V 2 O 3 , and wherein the thin film includes a top surface having an area of about 25 mm 2 .

Assignees

• Korea Electronics Telecomm

Inventors

• Kim Hyun-Tak
• Choi Jeong Yong
• Jeon Hyun-Woo
• Choi Jae Ho
• Seo Gi-Wan

Classifications

• H01L35/12 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L35/20

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L35/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10N10/8556

  comprising compounds containing germanium or silicon · CPC title

• H10N10/85 Primary

  Thermoelectric active materials · CPC title