Silicon nanowires thermoelectric devices

Thermoelectric units have been promising candidates at micro processor cooling and even at power generation at a micro-watt level. In fact thermoelectric energy converters can directly convert even low-grade heat gradients to electricity. However it has been a challenging task to scale down conventional thermoelectric materials as most of them are not CMOS compatible. Recent works on Silicon Nanowire arrays show great promise as highly scalable and efficient thermoelectric materials. In this work, we explore the potential of Silicon nanowires as a thermoelectric device. Numerical simulations on Silicon nanowires are performed to investigate both the power generation and cooling capability. Practical perspectives surrounding cover/insulation of wires cannot be avoided completely, hence in the cooling simulations, we included both the cooling potential of single isolated Silicon nanowire and Silicon nanowire with surrounding cover. Silicon nanowire individually has a large cooling power density but it was found that the inclusion of a surrounding material has a detrimental effect on the cooling performance.