可與微機電元件整合之熱電池研究

Abstract

近年來，人們不斷的在努力尋找替代石油的能源。像是利用太陽能發電，燃料電池、或是熱電池發電…等等。而隨著製程技術的進步，製作元件的尺寸也越來越小。因此，製作體積小且能夠自行產生電力的元件，便是目前所需要努力的目標。 動力能源微機電(Power MEMS)是指：利用微機電技術製作微小型且能獨立提供電能的元件。像是：微小型的燃料電池，及微小型的熱電池。熱電池是利用熱發電的元件，而熱電偶便是其中一個應用。 本篇文章著重在熱電偶(Thermocouple)。熱電偶是利用席貝克效應（Seebeck Effect）－當元件兩端有溫差時，便會產生電壓－來製作的元件。利用微機電技術的MetalMUMPs製程，我們將熱電偶做的微小型化，且研究不降低輸出電壓的方法與設計。 隨著利用MetalMUMPs製作的元件(像是致動器)越來越多，我們希望能夠利用同樣的製程去製作能夠獨立提供電能的熱電偶，並利用熱電偶所產生的動力或電力，去驅動其他微機電的元件，達到驗證熱電池與微機電元件整合之可行性。

Energy resources on the earth have been greatly depleted during the past few decades. Nowadays, many researches are dedicated to exploit possible replacement energy sources, particularly to fossil fuels. Among all the candidates, solar cells and fuel cells have been the front-runners, being in the spotlight. Recently, the thermoelectric effect, which can be used to convert heat into electricity, has drawn increasing interest. Power MEMS means a micro mechanical system which itself can provide electric power. Ex: fuel cells and thermal batteries. The latter is a application of thermocouples.

In this paper, we report on thermoelectric batteries (TEBs) composed of thermocouples utilizing the Seebeck effect for the purpose of energy scanvenging. They are fabricated with a MEMS-compatible process and, therefore, can be easily monolithically-integrated with MEMS devices. TEBs with different geometries are characterized and compared experimentally.