Structural design and manufacture of high packing density micro-thermoelectric power generators using thermoelectric films

A new micro-thermoelectric power generator module with high packing density of film thermoelectric legs has been proposed, in which a large number of p-type and n-type thin-film thermoelectric legs are electrically connected in series. A theoretical model has been established to simulate the output voltage and power of the proposed module, and the results shows that much higher output voltage and output power can be obtained simply by integrating more film thermoelectric components. Based on the proposed module, a micro-thermoelectric power generator containing 160 film thermocouples is fabricated with a size of 25mm (length) x 4mm (width) x 1mm (thickness). Its open-circuit voltage, maximum output power and corresponding power density at a temperature difference of 20K are 630mV, 35.73μW and 357.3μW·cm-3, respectively.