Fabrication of Thermoelectric Devices Using AlInN and InON Films prepared by reactive radio-frequency sputtering
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Fabrication of Thermoelectric Devices Using AlInN and InON Films prepared by reactive radio-frequency sputtering S. Yamaguchi 1,2, R. Izaki1, N. Kaiwa1, S. Sugimura1 and A. Yamamoto 2 1 Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, Kanagawa University, 3-27-1 Rokkakubashi, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, 221-8686, Japan 2 Energy Electronics Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, AIST Tsukuba Central 2 Umezono 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Japan, 305-8568 ABSTRACT We have studied the thermoelectric properties of AlInN and InON films prepared by reactive radio-frequency (RF) sputtering. We have fabricated thermoelectric devices which are composed of 20-pair nitride or oxynitride films with Chromel metal. For a AlInN device, the maximum output power was 7.6x10-7 W at ∆T = 257K, and for a InON device, that was 6.5x10-8 W at ∆T = 214K. INTRODUCTION From the standpoint of the energy issues on the globe, the thermoelectric phenomena help us to save energy, exhaustion of which has increased in the world year after year. Indeed, the thermoelectric phenomena can cause thermoelectric generation, which directly converts heat energy into electric energy without either using moving parts or producing emissions such as carbon dioxide gas and radioactive substances. This is of basic importance from the standpoints of environmental and energy-saving issues [1-4], and there has recently been a great increase in the research and development of thermoelectric power generation systems that are designed to employ the vast resources of waste heat and environmentally sound cooling [1]. The realization of practical applications associated with such systems requires the achievement of a high efficiency (i.e., large figure of merit) characterized by electric conductivity, thermoelectric Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity. However, since no binary compounds better than Bi2Te3 and PbTe have been found for room-temperature applications, the application of Bi2Te3 and PbTe has been limited in commercial use [5,6]. On the other hand, moving to another viewpoint, many electric devices have been downsized, and accordingly, the electric power necessary for the operation of any devices has become lower. In terms of such low-power electronics, namely, power-aware electronics, the technology to achieve extremely low power will be inevitable, and the downsized devices which have so far been portable will be wearable and implantable in the future. To accomplish such wearable and implantable devices, the power source issue is very important. We have studied the
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thermoelectric properties of nitride films in terms of it. Nitride films are the most proper material since they are thin enough to be easily embedded in the devices. Moreover, they do not constitute toxic elements, which fact helps us to accept them in widely general uses. Wearable and implantable devices must take a dominant position in the technology world when they ride on the waves of the ubiquitous computing network. Through our
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