SEEBECK/PELTIER THERMOELECTRIC CONVERSION ELEMENT WITH PARALLEL NANOWIRES OF CONDUCTOR OR SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIAL ORGANIZED IN ROWS AND COLUMNS THROUGH AN INSULATING BODY AND PROCESS

A novel and effective structure of a stackable element (A1, A2) or more generally adapted to be associated modularly to other similar elements to form a septum of relatively large dimensions for a Seebeck/Peltier thermoelectric conversion device, may be fabricated with common planar processing techniques. The structure basically consists of a stack (A1, A2) of alternated layers of a first dielectric material (2), adapted to be deposited in films of thickness lesser than or equal to about 50 nm, of low heat conductivity and which is etchable by a solution of a specific chemical compound, and of a second dielectric material (3) of low heat conductivity that is not etched by the solution. For the whole width, the stack is interrupted by parallel trenches (T1, T2, T3) the width (w) of which may correspond to the minimum linewidth of definition allowed by the resolution of the lithographic process used for defining the parallel trenches, but which may eventually be limited by other parameters, in primis the height of the stack (h) to be subjected to the vertical etch to cut the stack in order to form the parallel trenches.