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Measurement of Seebeck coefficient of electroplated thermoelectric films in presence of a seed layer

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Abstract

Effect of the seed layer on Seebeck coefficient measurement of electroplated thermoelectric films was quantitatively analyzed. It is found that sheet, rather than bulk resistance of the seed layer, or more precisely its relative comparison to sheet resistance of the film, determines the effects. The analysis reveals that the seed layer’s effect can be neglected (within 1% error) only if the sheet resistance ratio [R□2(film)/R□1(seed)] is smaller than 0.01. This condition commonly requires film thicknesses of 100 μm or more, which is not practically relevant. Based on the analysis we proposed a new method that is applicable for 10 times thinner films. This approach for determining Seebeck coefficient is simple, and more importantly, electroplated films can be characterized in their statu nascendi. Finite element simulation and experiments verified the analysis.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors acknowledge the Holst center (The Netherlands) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Katholic University of Leuven, Heverlee, 3001, Belgium

    Hai P. Nguyen & Jan Fransaer

  2. IMEC/Holst Centre, Eindhoven, 040 4020400, The Netherlands

    Jiale Su, Ziyang Wang & Ruud J.M. Vullers

  3. IMEC, Heverlee, 3001, Belgium

    Philippe M. Vereecken

  4. Center for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, Katholic University of Leuven, Leuven, B-3001, Belgium

    Philippe M. Vereecken

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  1. Hai P. Nguyen
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  2. Jiale Su
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  3. Ziyang Wang
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  4. Ruud J.M. Vullers
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  5. Philippe M. Vereecken
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  6. Jan Fransaer
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Correspondence to Jan Fransaer.

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Nguyen, H.P., Su, J., Wang, Z. et al. Measurement of Seebeck coefficient of electroplated thermoelectric films in presence of a seed layer. Journal of Materials Research 26, 1953–1957 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.83

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