The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 02, 2006
Filed:
Apr. 05, 2004
Saeid Ghamaty, La Jolla, CA (US);
Norbert B. Elsner, La Jolla, CA (US);
John C. Bass, La Jolla, CA (US);
Saeid Ghamaty, La Jolla, CA (US);
Norbert B. Elsner, La Jolla, CA (US);
John C. Bass, La Jolla, CA (US);
Hi-Z Technology, Inc., San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A super-lattice thermoelectric device. The device includes p-legs and n-legs, each leg having a large number of alternating layers of two materials with differing electron band gaps. The n-legs in the device are comprised of alternating layers of silicon and silicon germanium. The p-legs includes alternating layers of BC and BC. In preferred embodiments the layers are about 100 angstroms thick. Applicants have fabricated and tested a first Si/SiGe (n-leg) and BC/BC (p-leg) quantum well thermocouple. Each leg was only 11 microns thick on a 5 micron Si substrate. Nevertheless, in actual tests the thermocouple operated with an amazing efficiency of 14 percent with a Tof 250 degrees C. Thermoelectric modules made according to the present invention are useful for both cooling applications as well as electric power generation. This preferred embodiment is a thermoelectric 10×10 egg crate type module about 6 cm×6 cm×0.76 cm designed to produce 70 Watts with a temperature difference of 300 degrees C with a module efficiency of about 30 percent.