Silicon Membranes for Thermoelectrics

Silicon is currently the major semiconductor material for ICT and will probably sustain the Moore's law the coming decades in the integrated circuits and memories. As thermoelectric material silicon has suffered from the relatively high thermal conductivity, preventing successful exploitation of silicon in energy harvesting and in thermal management, i.e., like cooling. The recent experimental and theoretical results have shown that in ultra-thin silicon membranes the propagation of phonons can be largely blocked while maintaining the good electrical properties, high conductivity and Seebeck coefficient.[1] In this presentation we will discuss the potential of silicon membranes as thermoelectric material in the light of the recent findings of controlling the behaviour of phonons in the nanoscale membranes. The simulations show that cooling of several tens of degrees from the room temperature is possible with the membrane devices.