High Yield Self Assembly of Functional Thermoelectric Devices

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The research objective of this award is increase rate and yield of microscale self-assembly processes. In self-assembly, components are designed to spontaneously bond when brought together as by mixing or agitation. The rate of component assembly and the process yield depend on the characteristics of the interaction processes. The research approach will first validate and refine force and energy models of individual self-assembly bonds. These bond models will provide key inputs into a stochastic process models that relate controllable process parameters to process rate and yield. The models will be experimentally validated through assembly of a function microsystem?a micro thermoelectric cooler. The micro thermoelectric cooler will be assembled from high performance nanostructured thermoelectric materials to validate the predictive capabilities of the models. Deliverables include capillary bond models, general self-assembly process models, experimental model validation, process of generating models of related processes, documentation of results, and educational outreach to K-12 students.If successful, the results of this research will enable large scale integration of components too small to effectively pick up and manipulate using current assembly techniques. This will improve performance of microsystems by enabling integration of new materials and devices. For example, smaller thermoelectric elements can be integrated for more efficient cooling of electronic and photonic equipment and lower cost recovery of waste heat. The models and the methods for building them developed through this project can be adapted to self-assembly using other bond types and at other size scales. Examples from this work will be incorporated into presentations to K-6 students to teach important concepts about energy and to increase students? recognition of the role science and engineering play in their lives. High school demonstrations will be used to recruit students for hands-on lab work on the project during the summers. Advances from this project will also be integrated into graduate and undergraduate courses.