THERMOELECTRIC DEVICE WITH SI/SIC SUPERLATTICE N-LEGS

摘要

A superlattice thermoelectric device. The device is comprised of p-legs (60B) and n-legs (60A), each leg being comprised of a large number of at least two different very thin alternating layers of elements (62A, 64A, 66A, 62B, 64B, 66B). The n-legs in the device are comprised of alternating layers of silicon (50) and silicon carbide (48). In preferred embodiments p-legs are comprised of a superlatice of B-C layers, with alternating layers of different stoichiometric forms of B-C. This preferred embodiment is designed to produce 20 Watts with a temperature difference of 300 degrees C with a module efficiency of about 30 percent. The module is about 1 cm thick with a cross section area of about 7 cm<2¿and has about 10,000 sets of n and p legs each set of legs about 55 microns thick and having about 5,000 very thin layers (each layer about 10 nm thick).