Post-CMOS FinFET Integration of Bismuth Telluride and Antimony Telluride Thin-Film-Based Thermoelectric Devices on SoI Substrate

• Published in: IEEE electron device letters 2013-10, Vol.34 (10), p.1334-1336
• Main Authors: Aktakka, Ethem Erkan, Ghafouri, Niloufar, Smith, Casey E., Peterson, Rebecca L., Hussain, Muhammad Mustafa, Najafi, Khalil
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antimony telluride ({\rm Sb}_{2}{\rm Te}_{3}); Applied sciences; bismuth telluride ({\rm Bi}_{2}{\rm Te}_{3}); CMOS; CMOS integrated circuits; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; FinFET; FinFETs; heterogeneous integration; Integrated circuits; Metals; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Substrates; Tellurium; Temperature measurement; Thermoelectric, pyroelectric devices, etc; thermoelectricity; Transistors
• ISSN: 0741-3106; 1558-0563
• DOI: 10.1109/LED.2013.2277693

This letter reports, for the first time, heterogeneous integration of bismuth telluride (Bi 2 Te 3 ) and antimony telluride (Sb 2 Te 3 ) thin-film-based thermoelectric (TE) devices on a CMOS substrate. The TE films are deposited on a silicon-on-insulator substrate with FinFETs (3-D multiple gate field effect transistors) via a characterized TE-film coevaporation and shadow-mask patterning process using predeposition surface treatment methods for reduced TE-metal contact resistance. As a demonstration vehicle, a 2 × 2 mm 2 -sized integrated planar thermoelectric generator (TEG) is shown to harvest 0.7 μW from 21-K temperature gradient. Transistor performance showed no significant change upon post-CMOS TEG integration, indicating, for the first time, the CMOS compatibility of the Bi 2 Te 3 and Sb 2 Te 3 thin films, which could be leveraged for realization of high-performance integrated micro-TE harvesters and coolers.