Monocrystalline-silicon-based thermogenerator with broad temperature working range embedded using metal-spray-deposition

•Large temperature working range of the thermogenerator (from 250 K up to 1000 K).•Micromechanical structures embedded into metal using metal-spray-deposition.•90% yield of the successfully embedded thermogenerators.

A new silicon-based thermogenerator with a reduced parasitic contact resistivity and a large temperature working range from 250 K up to 1000 K is presented. Three-dimensional contact geometry and additional doping reduces the contact resistivity from 12.7 MΩ μm2 to 57.6 kΩ μm2. In this way, for all temperatures above 250 K the contact resistivity is negligible with respect to the inner resistivity of the thermoelectric materials. At room temperature it is only 1% of the total resistivity.The thermogenerator was embedded in metal using the method of metal-spray-deposition, which ensures high yield of the successfully embedded thermogenerators (30 functional of the total of 32) due to relatively low mechanical forces applied during the embedding process and reduced thermo-mechanical stress during the following cool-down phase.Our results demonstrate that it is possible to embed silicon microsystems in metals during high-temperature metallurgic primary forming processes.