Low-cost seebeck power measurement system for characterization of thermoelectric junctions and modules

Abstract

Development of thermoelectric materials and devices requires performance testing to assess improvements as compared against known control samples. Traditionally, this has been done by measuring the figure of merit. However, another important parameter for materials evaluation is the power output of a single P-N junction pair, typically performed by applying current to the circuit and measuring the Peltier temperature difference output. This approach often leads to errors due to contact resistive heating across interfaces within a device. An alternative approach is to evaluate a thermoelectric couple as a Seebeck generator that requires expensive meters ($20 k-$30 k) to measure milli-volt and milli-amp outputs. In order to enable materials evaluation without the need to use full device modules that are costly and time intensive to fabricate and test, this paper describes the development of low-cost (~$200) measurement circuit and shows data that validates the milli-volt and milli-amp outputs from a single thermoelectric couple.