Issue

Vol. 16 (2024)

On-Chip Micro Temperature Controllers Based on Freestanding Thermoelectric Nano Films for Low-Power Electronics

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01342-3
Qun Jin
Institute for Metallic Materials, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, 01069 Dresden, Germany
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8710-7737
Tianxiao Guo
Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Siegen, 57076 Siegen, Germany
Nicolás Pérez
Institute for Metallic Materials, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, 01069 Dresden, Germany
Nianjun Yang
Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Siegen, 57076 Siegen, Germany
Xin Jiang
Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Siegen, 57076 Siegen, Germany
Kornelius Nielsch
Institute for Metallic Materials, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, 01069 Dresden, Germany
Heiko Reith
Institute for Metallic Materials, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, 01069 Dresden, Germany

Corresponding Author: Heiko Reith

h.reith@ifw-dresden.de

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 16 (2024), Article Number: 126

Abstract

Multidimensional integration and multifunctional component assembly have been greatly explored in recent years to extend Moore’s Law of modern microelectronics. However, this inevitably exacerbates the inhomogeneity of temperature distribution in microsystems, making precise temperature control for electronic components extremely challenging. Herein, we report an on-chip micro temperature controller including a pair of thermoelectric legs with a total area of 50 × 50 μm2, which are fabricated from dense and flat freestanding Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric nano films deposited on a newly developed nano graphene oxide membrane substrate. Its tunable equivalent thermal resistance is controlled by electrical currents to achieve energy-efficient temperature control for low-power electronics. A large cooling temperature difference of 44.5 K at 380 K is achieved with a power consumption of only 445 μW, resulting in an ultrahigh temperature control capability over 100 K mW−1. Moreover, an ultra-fast cooling rate exceeding 2000 K s−1 and excellent reliability of up to 1 million cycles are observed. Our proposed on-chip temperature controller is expected to enable further miniaturization and multifunctional integration on a single chip for microelectronics.


Highlights:
1 Dense and flat freestanding Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric nano films were successfully fabricated by sputtering technology using a newly developed nano graphene oxide membrane as a substrate.
2 On-chip micro temperature controllers were integrated using conventional micro-electromechanical system technology, to achieve energy-efficient temperature control for low-power electronics.
3 The tunable equivalent thermal resistance enables an ultrahigh temperature control capability of 100 K mW−1 and an ultra-fast cooling rate exceeding 2000 K s−1, as well as excellent reliability of up to 1 million cycles.

Keywords

Temperature control Low-power electronics On-chip micro temperature controller Freestanding thermoelectric nano films Temperature-sensitive components
Jin, Qun, Tianxiao Guo, Nicolás Pérez, Nianjun Yang, Xin Jiang, Kornelius Nielsch, and Heiko Reith. 2024. “On-Chip Micro Temperature Controllers Based on Freestanding Thermoelectric Nano Films for Low-Power Electronics”. Nano-Micro Letters 16 (February):126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01342-3.
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