WO2005031780A2 - Tunneling gap diodes - Google Patents
Tunneling gap diodes Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO2005031780A2 WO2005031780A2 PCT/US2004/031221 US2004031221W WO2005031780A2 WO 2005031780 A2 WO2005031780 A2 WO 2005031780A2 US 2004031221 W US2004031221 W US 2004031221W WO 2005031780 A2 WO2005031780 A2 WO 2005031780A2
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- band gap
- collector
- band
- emitter
- tunnel diode
- Prior art date
Links
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01J—ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
- H01J45/00—Discharge tubes functioning as thermionic generators
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- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
- F25B—REFRIGERATION MACHINES, PLANTS OR SYSTEMS; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS
- F25B21/00—Machines, plants or systems, using electric or magnetic effects
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- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
- F25B—REFRIGERATION MACHINES, PLANTS OR SYSTEMS; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS
- F25B2321/00—Details of machines, plants or systems, using electric or magnetic effects
- F25B2321/003—Details of machines, plants or systems, using electric or magnetic effects by using thermionic electron cooling effects
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- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02B—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
- Y02B30/00—Energy efficient heating, ventilation or air conditioning [HVAC]
Definitions
- This invention relates to tunneling diodes and their application to heat pumping and power generation.
- Tunnel junctions of a new type that comprise Normal metal-Vacuum-Normal metal have been disclosed [Avto Tavkhelidze, Larisa Koptonashvili, Zauri Berishvili, Givi Skhiladze, "Method for making diode device", US Patent No. 6,417,060 B2] .
- a key advantage of these junctions is the use of a vacuum as the insulator. Consequently, there is formally zero heat conductivity between the electrodes, allowing the fabrication of tunnel junctions with extremely low thermal backflow.
- thermionic diodes offer the possibility of efficient cooling: every electron that leaves the emitter carries away energy WF + 2kT (where WF is the work function of the emitter electrode) .
- WF is the work function of the emitter electrode
- materials having work functions of the order of ⁇ 0.3-0.35eV are needed for the emitter, and such materials are not practically available.
- the present invention discloses a tunneling diode having a band gap material. as the collector, or having a metal electrode coated by a film of band gap material with a thickness greater than the mean distance of relaxation of tunneled emitter electrons ( ⁇ 10nm or more) . This increases the tunneling of electrons having greater energy than the Fermi level from emitter to collector, leading to an increase in the efficiency of heat pumping or power generation by the diode.
- band gap material is defined as a crystal material having a filled zero temperature valence band and an empty conductive band.
- the band gap material may be a material such as a dielectric or semiconductor.
- the tunneling diode may have the same or different band gap material as emitter, or a metal emitter, coated by the same or different band gap material. This not only increases the tunneling of electrons having greater energy than Fermi level from emitter to collector but also suppresses partially the back emission from anode to cathode, leading to an increase in the efficiency of heat pumping or power generation by the diode .
- the band gap material may be present as a layer of band gap material, or may be a hetero-structured band gap layer.
- the present invention also comprises a method for promoting the tunneling of electrons having an energy level higher than the Fermi level from an emitter surface, comprising the step of positioning a collector comprising a band gap material at a distance within the tunneling range of the electrons
- the present invention also comprises a method for suppressing back tunneling of electrons from collector to emitter by using a collector comprised of a band gap material .
- the present invention also comprises a vacuum diode heat pump for heat pumping applications comprising the tunneling diode of the present invention.
- the present invention also comprises an electrical power generator comprising the tunneling diode of the present invention.
- Figure 1 shows two embodiments of a tunnel diode device of the present invention.
- Figure 2 shows in diagrammatic form various energy levels of a close-spaced tunnel diode of the present invention.
- Figure 3 shows two embodiments of a tunnel diode device of the present invention for pumping heat or power generation.
- FIG. 1A shows in diagrammatic form a tunnel diode comprising a metal emitter 102, a collector 104, an external circuit 106 and a voltage source, 108.
- the collector comprises a band gap material, which is to be understood in this present disclosure to indicate a material in which there is a forbidden region between a lower valence band and an upper conduction band.
- the band gap material may be a semiconductor, such as Ge, Si, GaAs or SiC.
- the band gap material may be a hetero-structured semiconductor, made from several thin layers of material with different band gaps.
- the layers can be anything from a few atoms in thickness right up to micrometre size and the materials used are typically gallium arsenide (GaAs) or aluminium gallium arsenide (AlGaAs) .
- the band gap material may also be a material such as diamond or doped diamond. It also includes materials such as the alkali metal oxides or the alkaline earth oxides.
- Figure IB discloses another embodiment of the present invention, in which the band gap material is deposited as a layer on a metal collector 210.
- the space d between the two electrodes is of the order of 1 - 20nm, and is maintained at this distance by a housing (not shown) .
- the space between the electrodes is evacuated, or filled with an inert gas at low pressure, such as argon.
- the operation of the tunnel diode of the present invention may be understood by referring to
- Figure 2 which shows various energy levels for a metal cathode (or emitter) positioned a small distance d away from a semiconductor anode (or collector) .
- Distance d is preferably of the order of 1 - lOOnm, most preferably 1 - lOnm.
- the semiconductor shown in Figure 2 is pure semiconductor. It is well known that the Fermi level of such a semiconductor lies near the center of forbidden band G.
- the vertical axis in Figure 2 represents potential energy, with zero signifying the bottom of the metal conductive band.
- the horizontal axis represents the electron and electron state density f( ⁇ ) in the metal and in the semiconductor, and the distance x between electrodes. Electron density in the conducting band of the metal and in the conducting (upper) and valence (lower) bands of semiconductor is shown by the bold lines, and the thin lines represent the electron states density.
- the difference between Fermi levels of the electrodes, V, is the applied voltage (V bias) .
- WF 1 is the work function of the metal
- WF 2 is the work function of the semiconductor
- G is the forbidden band.
- the forbidden band G of the semiconductor is not too large (for example, about 0.5-leV)
- thermal excitation of electrons from the valence band into the conductive band is sufficiently fast for electrical current transmission in the semiconductor (especially if it is a layer ⁇ 10-15nm "thin” for conductivity and "thick” for tunnel processes) .
- a further aspect of the invention is that the application of a voltage bias V between electrodes allows electrons with energies greater than E 0 - V to tunnel.
- the tunnel diode of the present invention is equivalent to a thermionic diode with an "artificial" work function of E 0 - V.
- the magnitude of the artificial work function can be adjusted for the operating conditions, especially for operating temperature, by the choice of E 0 and V.
- this potential threshold (G/2-V) is equivalent to the emitter work function in thermionic diodes, and can be adjusted to optimal low (for example, -0.4 -0.3eV for operation at temperatures ⁇ 250 - 350K) value by applied voltage V.
- G/2-V the tunnel diode of the present invention is as efficient as a thermionic diode for cooling, and that this level of cooling can be achieved in practice without resorting to exotic materials having low work functions.
- its "work function" can be chosen, and the cooling power and efficiency manipulated, by varying V and gap size d.
- varying the electron donor concentration allows the position of the Fermi level to be moved from the centre of the forbidden gap to nearer the bottom of the conductive band.
- the effective work function be modified to any appropriate value, up to 0.1 - O.OleV or less.
- a hetero- structure semiconductor may be utilized.
- the semiconductor may be appropriately doped, since it is well- known that semiconductors with high doping by an electron donor dopant can have E 0 up to 0.
- semiconductors with less dopant concentration and thus a higher ⁇ 0 may be used (for example, for room temperature operation, E 0 ⁇ 0.3 - 0.6eV) .
- the band gap material used must have sufficient conductivity for working currents (1- 100A/cm2) ; and (ii) the band gap material should give low WF ( ⁇ 1 - 1.2eV) after Cs + 0 2 treatment (or by treatment of another electropositive atoms such as another alkali metals, alkali-earth metals (Ba, Sr) , la, Y, Sc etc., and other electronegative atoms (F and another halogens, S, etc) .
- the output voltage is small ( ⁇ 0.1V or less), and so E 0 should be less -0.2 - 0.4eV for emitter temperatures 300- 400K . But for higher temperatures ( 500 - 600 - 700K) the preferred value for E 0 rises , and for 700 - 800K it can be -lev .
- FIG. 3 shows in diagrammatic form a heat pump / power converter of the present invention comprising an emitter, a collector and a bias circuit.
- the collector is a semiconductor material.
- the collector is a layer of a semi conductor material on a metal electrode.
- the tunnel gap diode is connected via an external circuit 302 to a power supply.
- Emitter 202 is in thermal contact with an object to be cooled (not shown) , and collector 204 is in thermal contact with a heat sink (not shown) .
- the tunnel gap diode is connected via an external circuit 302 to an electrical load.
- Emitter 202 is in thermal contact with a heat source (not shown)
- collector 204 is in thermal contact with a heat sink (not shown) .
- thermoelectrical (semiconductor) ones may be used in diode devices, vacuum diode devices, heat 'pumps, and the like.
- heat pipes based on this invention have specific power and efficiency commensurate with, or better than, common compressor refrigerators employing evaporated heat carrier, and specific weight and volume commensurate with (or better than) thermoelectrical (semiconductor) ones. Because producion of such heat pipes can be based on nanotechnology and microma-s-chining, they should be sufficiently cheap to manufacture.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US10/573,239 US20070057277A1 (en) | 2004-09-22 | 2004-09-22 | Tunneling gap diodes |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
GBGB0322116.5A GB0322116D0 (en) | 2003-09-22 | 2003-09-22 | Tunneling gap diodes |
GB0322116.5 | 2003-09-22 |
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO2005031780A2 true WO2005031780A2 (en) | 2005-04-07 |
WO2005031780A3 WO2005031780A3 (en) | 2005-09-22 |
Family
ID=29266405
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US2004/031221 WO2005031780A2 (en) | 2003-09-22 | 2004-09-22 | Tunneling gap diodes |
Country Status (2)
Country | Link |
---|---|
GB (1) | GB0322116D0 (en) |
WO (1) | WO2005031780A2 (en) |
Citations (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5162243A (en) * | 1991-08-30 | 1992-11-10 | Trw Inc. | Method of producing high reliability heterojunction bipolar transistors |
-
2003
- 2003-09-22 GB GBGB0322116.5A patent/GB0322116D0/en not_active Ceased
-
2004
- 2004-09-22 WO PCT/US2004/031221 patent/WO2005031780A2/en active Application Filing
Patent Citations (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5162243A (en) * | 1991-08-30 | 1992-11-10 | Trw Inc. | Method of producing high reliability heterojunction bipolar transistors |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
GB0322116D0 (en) | 2003-10-22 |
WO2005031780A3 (en) | 2005-09-22 |
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