Flexible Thin-Film BiTe Thermopile for Room Temperature Power Generation

This paper reports the characteristics of BiTe thin-films, the output result of the thermopile generator and the proposition of new design flexible thermopile generator. Power generation by thermoelectric conversion has advantages of maintenance-free, waste-free and quietness. Since a thermopile has a simple structure, miniaturization is comparatively easy. We obtained an output voltage of 160 tV/K per thermocouple, which is 4100 of the theoretical ´ . . . ~~~~~~ optimize value. Furthermore, the resistivity of p-type BiTe thin-film had 110 mQ cm, which was 130 times greater than that of the bulk sputtering target. The main cause of crystalline difference was investigated by x-ray diffraction. The crystalline would be recovered by heat treatment. Due to the wavy structure and brittle thermoelectric materials, thermopile generator doesn´t have enough flexibility. As a solution, new design and packaging has been proposed.