Thermoelectric performance of silicon nanowires

Abstract

With finite element simulation and analytic modeling, the thermoelectric performance of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) is studied. Large cooling temperature is observed which increases remarkably as thermal conductivity of SiNW decreases. Moreover, high cooling power density of 6.6× 103 W/ cm2 is achieved which is about 600 times larger than that of commercial thermoelectric modules. Moreover, SiNW cooler can reach the coefficient as high as 61%. All these features make SiNW a very promising material in application of on-chip temperature controlling and heat dissipating for hot spots inside integrated circuits. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.