Single-Materials Graphene Thermocouples

Scalable and reliable temperature sensors are required by manufacturers in order to serve the increasing demand for on-chip temperature sensing on a micro-to-nanometer scale, using thermal probing and management.

This paper by Achim Harzheim and colleagues, published in Advanced Functional Materials, shows U-shaped graphene strips consisting of one wide and one narrow leg from a single material themocouple that can function as a self-powering temperature sensor.

It was found that the graphene thermoscales increased in sensitivity with a decrease in leg width, due to a change in the Seeback coefficient, as supported by previous findings.