Energy Harvesting in the Back-End of Line with CMOS Compatible Ferroelectric Hafnium Oxide

Abstract

We demonstrate the feasibility of thermal energy recovery in the back end of line (BEoL) employing CMOS-compatible ferroelectric hafnium oxide. Efficient pyroelectric energy harvesting with a sizable power density of 92 mWcm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-3</sup> under typical thermal conditions is achieved. Our energy harvesting approach exceeds the efficiency limit of commonly-used thermoelectric materials, without using a heat switch. The low-voltage operation, scalability, and abundance in CMOS manufacturing make HfO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> -based ferroelectrics promising candidates for integrated energy harvesting and solid-state refrigeration applications.