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Piezoresistive heat engine and refrigerator

Nature Physics volume 7, pages 354–359 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

Heat engines provide most of our mechanical power and are essential for transportation on the macroscopic scale. However, although significant progress has been made in the miniaturization of electrostatic engines, it has proved difficult to reduce the size of liquid- or gas-driven heat engines below 107 μm3. Here we demonstrate that a crystalline silicon structure operates as a cyclic piezoresistive heat engine when it is driven by a sufficiently high d.c. current. A 0.34 μm3 engine beam draws heat from the d.c. current using the piezoresistive effect and converts it into mechanical work by expansion and contraction at different temperatures. This mechanical power drives a silicon resonator of 1.1×103 μm3 into sustained oscillation. Even below the oscillation threshold the engine beam continues to amplify the resonator’s Brownian motion. When its thermodynamic cycle is inverted, the structure is shown to reduce these thermal fluctuations, therefore operating as a refrigerator.

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Figure 1: Micrograph, schematics, measurement circuit and operation mechanism of the piezoresistive heat engine and refrigerator.
Figure 2: Heat engine output signal.
Figure 3: Voltage spectral density 〈vω2〉 for different values of Id.c.
Figure 4: Measurements and fits to confirm the operation mechanism proposed in Fig. 1d.
Figure 5: Diagrams showing the heat flow and operation modes of the engine beam.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. J. M. Ruigrok, C. S. Vaucher, K. Reimann, R. Woltjer and E. P. A. M. Bakkers for discussions and suggestions and thank J. v. Wingerden for his assistance with the scanning electron microscope measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NXP-TSMC Research Center, NXP Semiconductors, HTC 4, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    P. G. Steeneken, K. Le Phan, M. J. Goossens, G. E. J. Koops, G. J. A. M. Brom, C. van der Avoort & J. T. M. van Beek

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  1. P. G. Steeneken
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  2. K. Le Phan
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  3. M. J. Goossens
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  4. G. E. J. Koops
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  5. G. J. A. M. Brom
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  6. C. van der Avoort
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  7. J. T. M. van Beek
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Contributions

K.L.P., P.G.S., J.T.M.v.B. and M.J.G. invented and designed the device. P.G.S., K.L.P., M.J.G. and C.v.d.A. carried out the experiments. P.G.S. developed the theory, analysed the experiments and wrote the Article. J.T.M.v.B., G.E.J.K. and G.J.A.M.B. developed the process technology and manufactured the device.

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Correspondence to P. G. Steeneken.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Steeneken, P., Le Phan, K., Goossens, M. et al. Piezoresistive heat engine and refrigerator. Nature Phys 7, 354–359 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1871

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