Novel thermionic cooling effect in asymmetric double barrier semiconductor heterostructures

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K21957
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 21:Electrical and electronic engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Hirakawa Kazuhiko 東京大学, 生産技術研究所, 教授 (10183097)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 冷却素子 / 半導体へテロ構造 / トンネル効果 / 熱電子放出

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In modern electronics, the heat generated inside devices has begun to have a significant effect on the operation and reliability of the devices. Therefore, the highly efficient cooling technology for devices is the key technology for the progress of electronics. In particular, there is an urgent need for solid-state device technology that efficiently cools hot parts of individual devices and LSI chips.
In this research, we have focused ourselves on the thermionic cooling technology that can be realized by appropriately designing the band structure of the heterostructure and controlling the thermionic emission and resonance tunneling effect at the same time. We have developed a new analytical theory as well as a numerical computer code to optimize the device structure and compared the results with experiment.

Free Research Field

量子半導体エレクトロニクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

現代のエレクトロニクスは、素子の高密度集積化と高速動作を達成することにより大きな発展を遂げてきた。しかし、同時に素子の内部で発生する熱が、素子の動作や信頼性に大きな影響を与えはじめており、エレクトロニクスの発展を大きく阻んでいる。本研究では、半導体薄膜構造におけるトンネル効果と熱電子放出効果をうまく組み合わせて、標準的な半導体材料を用いながら、大きな冷却パワーと高い冷却効率をもつ半導体へテロ構造冷却素子を実現することを目標としている。