Design and Simulation of a Novel Thermoelectric Micro-Device with Electrodeposited Bi-Te Alloys

Abstract

A novel thermoelectric micro-device was designed with n-type and p-type Bi-Te materials alloys via a template electrodeposition process. The glass template including 250 holes in 10×10 mm2with a thickness of 200~ 400 µm. The diameter of the holes is 50~ 80 µm and the distance of adjacent centers of the holes is 200 µm. According to the design, the performance of heat transference and thermoelectric energy generation are simulated by COMSOL Multiphysics. In order to simplify model, there are 16 units in total, and each unit is made up of 16 (4 × 4) pillars. In the simulation, the largest temperature difference is 7.8K on the conditions of 500 W/m2K in convection heat transfer coefficients and the maximum output potential of the module is 21.7 mV. The maximum output power achieved 96.9 µW under 500 W/m2K of heat transfer coefficient and 10 mA of current. Under ideal conditions, the value of open circuit voltage and maximum output power increases to nine times as the model, but short circuit current remains the same. When the heat transfer coefficient is 500 W/m2K and the current density is 10 mA, the maximum output power of the actual product achieved 871.7 µW.