Case 10634

Cold electron thermal-electric diode

Keywords:
Refrigeration, thermoelectric device, diode behavior, semiconductor structure

Applications:
Direct energy conversion from heat/thermal energy to electricity

Problem:
Thermoelectric devices have low energy efficiency.

Technology:
The invention designs a forward electrical potential step that creates an electron temperature discontinuity in a semiconductor structure. The design shows that electron temperature at the interface region has a large discontinuity that leads to a large Fermi level discontinuity, which increases the effective Seebeck coefficient (S) of the semiconductor structure. The power factor thus increases significantly over best thermoelectric materials.

Advantages:

New device structure designs are provided

Improve energy conversion efficiency

Inventors:

Professor Gang Chen (Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT)

Intellectual Property:
US Patent Number 8,309,838, filed on November 13, 2012

Publications:
N/A

Last revised: April 30, 2013

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