• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.139-144
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• 2005

A rigorous research is underway in our team, for the design and development of high figure of merits (ZT= 1.5${\sim}$2.0) micro-thermoelectric coolers. This paper discusses the fabrication process that we are using for developing the $Sb_2Te_3-Bi_2Te_3$ micro-thermoelectric cooling modules. It describes how to obtain the mechanical properties of the thin film TEC elements and reports the results of an equation-based multiphysics modeling of the micro-TEC modules. In this study the thermoelectric thin films were deposited on Si substrates using co-sputtering method. The physical mechanical properties of the prepared films were measured by nanoindentation testing method while the thermal and electrical properties required for modeling were obtained from existing literature. A finite element model was developed using an equation-based multiphysics modeling by the commercial finite element code FEMLAB. The model was solved for different operating conditions. The temperature and the stress distributions in the P and N elements of the TEC as well as in the metal connector were obtained. The temperature distributions of the system obtained from simulation results showed good agreement with the analytical results existing in literature. In addition, it was found that the maximum stress in the system occurs at the bonding part of the TEC i.e. between the metal connectors and TE elements of the module.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.152-155
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• 2009

The microstructure and the electrical properties of a ZnO varistor, which was composed of a ZnO-$Bi_2O_3$-$Sb_2O_3$-CoO- $MnO_2$ -NiO-$Nd_2O_3$ system, were investigated at various $Y_2O_3$ addition concentrations. $Y_2O_3$ played a role in the inhibition of the grain growth. As the $Y_2O_3$ content increased, the average grain size decreased from $6.8{\mu}m$ to $4{\mu}m$, and the varistor voltage($V_{1mA}$) greatly increased from 275 to 400 V/mm. The nonlinearity coefficient ($\alpha$) decreased from 72 to 65 with increasing $Y_2O_3$ amount. On the other hand, the leakage current ($I_L$) increased from 0.2 to 0.9 ${\mu}A$. These results confirmed that doping the varistors with $Y_2O_3$ is a promising production route for production of a higher fine-grained varistor voltage ($V_{1mA}$) which can dramatically reduce the size of the varistors.