Ultrathin MEMS thermoelectric generator with Bi(2)Te(3)/(Pt, Au) multilayers and Sb(2)Te(3) legs

Multilayer structure is one of the research focuses of thermoelectric (TE) material in recent years. In this work, n-type 800 nm Bi(2)Te(3)/(Pt, Au) multilayers are designed with p-type Sb(2)Te(3) legs to fabricate ultrathin microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) TE devices. The power factor of the annealed Bi(2)Te(3)/Pt multilayer reaches 46.5 μW cm(−1) K(−2) at 303 K, which corresponds to more than a 350% enhancement when compared to pristine Bi(2)Te(3). The annealed Bi(2)Te(3)/Au multilayers have a lower power factor than pristine Bi(2)Te(3). The power of the device with Sb(2)Te(3) and Bi(2)Te(3)/Pt multilayers measures 20.9 nW at 463 K and the calculated maximum output power reaches 10.5 nW, which is 39.5% higher than the device based on Sb(2)Te(3) and Bi(2)Te(3), and 96.7% higher than the Sb(2)Te(3) and Bi(2)Te(3)/Au multilayers one. This work can provide an opportunity to improve TE properties by using multilayer structures and novel ultrathin MEMS TE devices in a wide variety of applications.