Fabrication Process of Antimony Telluride and Bismuth Telluride Micro Thermoelectric Generator

Abstract

This paper describes the process of fabricating micro thermoelectric generators (μ-TEGs) based on antimony telluride (Sb-Te) and bismuth telluride (Bi-Te). These materials have excellent thermoelectric (TE) conversion properties. The deposition and patterning processes for thermoelectric films are key techniques in the fabrication of μ-TEGs. However, it is difficult to form TE micropatterns using conventional semiconductor technologies because Sb-Te and Bi-Te are brittle and difficult to etch. Therefore, a semiconductor fabrication process is developed for TE film patterning. Here, various processes for depositing Sb-Te and Bi-Te TE films are described. Then, the combinations of the deposition and patterning techniques are reviewed. Finally, the generation properties of the μ-TEGs are summarized.