A method includes etching and patterning a metal cladding of a metal clad laminate to form electrically conductive pads, leads and terminals therewith across a surface of the metal clad laminate, and sputter depositing pairs of N-type thermoelectric legs and P-type thermoelectric legs electrically in contact with one another on top of the formed electrically conductive pads across the surface of the metal clad laminate. The method also includes depositing conductive interconnects on top of the pairs of the N-type thermoelectric legs and the P-type thermoelectric legs to connect all of the pairs of the N-type thermoelectric legs and the P-type thermoelectric legs to one another to form the thermoelectric module, and utilizing a temperature gradient perpendicular to a plane of the surface of the metal clad laminate of the formed thermoelectric module to derive thermoelectric power from a system element.

A CMOS-based sensing device includes a substrate including an etched portion and a first region located on the substrate. The first region includes a membrane region formed over an area of the etched portion of the substrate, a flow sensor formed within the membrane region and a pressure sensor formed within the membrane region.

A thermoelectric conversion module includes: a first thermoelectric conversion element group including a first thermoelectric member including a first conductivity-type semiconductor, and a second thermoelectric member including a second conductivity-type semiconductor; a second thermoelectric conversion element group including a third thermoelectric member including the first conductivity-type semiconductor, and a fourth thermoelectric member including the second conductivity-type semiconductor; a first substrate connected to an upper side of the first thermoelectric conversion element group and the second thermoelectric conversion element group; and a second substrate connected to a lower side of the first thermoelectric conversion element group and the second thermoelectric conversion element group. The first thermoelectric member and the second thermoelectric member are electrically connected by a first current path. The third thermoelectric member and the fourth thermoelectric member are electrically connected by a second current path. The first current path is insulated from the second current path.

A metasurface integrated microbolometer having a sensing layer (e.g., Si.sub.xGe.sub.yO.sub.1-x-y). The presence of the metasurface provides selectivity with respect to wavelength, polarization and angle-of-incidence. The presence of the metasurface into the microbolometer affects conversion of electromagnetic to thermal energy, thermal response, electrical integration of the microbolometer, and the tradeoff between resistivity and temperature coefficient of resistance, thereby allowing the ability to obtain a sensing with high temperature coefficient of resistance with lower resistivity values than that of films without the metasurface. The presence of the metasurface removes the need for a Fabry-Perot cavity.

Methods for determining desired doping conditions for a semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (s-SWCNT) are provided. One exemplary method includes doping each of a plurality of s-SWCNT networks under a respective set of doping conditions; determining a thermoelectric (TE) power factor as a function of a fractional bleach of an absorption spectrum for the plurality of s-SWCNT networks doped under the respective sets of doping conditions; and using the function to identify one of the TE power factors within a range of the fractional bleach of the absorption spectrum. The identified TE power factor corresponds to the desired doping conditions.

In some embodiments, thermoelectric apparatus and various applications of thermoelectric apparatus are described herein. In some embodiments, a thermoelectric apparatus described herein comprises at least one p-type layer coupled to at least one n-type layer to provide a pn junction, and an insulating layer at least partially disposed between the p-type layer and the n-type layer, the p-type layer comprising a plurality of carbon nanoparticles and the n-type layer comprising a plurality of n-doped carbon nanoparticles.

An integrated circuit system, structure and/or component is provided that includes an integrated electrical power source in a form of a unique, environmentally-friendly energy harvesting element or component. The energy harvesting component provides a mechanism for generating autonomous renewable energy, or a renewable energy supplement, in the integrated circuit system, structure and/or component. The energy harvesting element includes a first conductor layer, a low work function layer, a dielectric layer, and a second conductor layer that are particularly configured to promote electron migration from the low work function layer, through the dielectric layer, to the facing surface of the second conductor layer in a manner that develops an electric potential between the first conductor layer and the second conductor layer. An energy harvesting component includes a plurality of energy harvesting elements electrically connected to one another to increase a power output of the electric harvesting component.

Provided is a semiconductor device manufacturing method which can suppress the occurrence of positional deviation or inclination of a semiconductor element when the semiconductor element is fixed so as to be sandwiched-between two insulating substrates. The semiconductor device manufacturing method includes: obtaining a laminated body in which a semiconductor element is temporarily adhered on a first electrode formed on a first insulating substrate with a first pre-sintering layer sandwiched therebetween; temporarily adhering the semiconductor element on a second electrode formed on a second insulating substrate with a second pre-sintering layer sandwiched therebetween, the second pre-sintering layer being provided on a side opposite to the first pre-sintering layer, to obtain a semiconductor device precursor; and simultaneously heating the first pre-sintering layer and the second pre-sintering layer, to bond the semiconductor element to the first electrode and the second electrode.

A papillary print sensor is provided, including a light emitting device configured to emit light radiation towards the sensor; and a matrix photodetector configured to be sensitive to at least part of an emission spectrum of the light emitting device, the light emitting device and the matrix photodetector being distributed together in and/or above a same semiconducting substrate, the light emitting device being composed of at least one gallium nitride light emitting diode (LED) with a series of through openings.

A semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes a substrate having a chamber. The semiconductor device also includes a first dielectric layer disposed on the substrate. The semiconductor device further includes a pair of thermocouples disposed on the first dielectric layer. The semiconductor device includes a second dielectric layer disposed on the first dielectric layer and between the thermocouples. The semiconductor device also includes an absorber connected to the thermocouples.