scholarly journals Structural Design Optimization of Micro-Thermoelectric Generator for Wearable Biomedical Devices

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2339
Author(s):  
Amit Tanwar ◽  
Swatchith Lal ◽  
Kafil M. Razeeb

Wearable sensors to monitor vital health are becoming increasingly popular both in our daily lives and in medical diagnostics. The human body being a huge source of thermal energy makes it interesting to harvest this energy to power such wearables. Thermoelectric devices are capable of converting the abundantly available body heat into useful electrical energy using the Seebeck effect. However, high thermal resistance between the skin and the device leads to low-temperature gradients (2–10 K), making it difficult to generate useful power by this device. This study focuses on the design optimization of the micro-thermoelectric generator for such low-temperature applications and investigates the role of structural geometries in enhancing the overall power output. Electroplated p-type bismuth antimony telluride (BiSbTe) and n-type copper telluride (CuTe) materials’ properties are used in this study. All the simulations and design optimizations were completed following microfabrication constraints along with realistic temperature gradient scenarios. A series of structural optimizations were performed including the thermoelectric pillar geometries, interconnect contact material layers and fill factor of the overall device. The optimized structural design of the micro-thermoelectric device footprint of 4.5 × 3.5 mm2, with 240 thermoelectric leg pairs, showcased a maximum power output of 0.796 mW and 3.18 mW when subjected to the low-temperature gradient of 5 K and 10 K, respectively. These output power values have high potential to pave the way of realizing future wearable devices.

2021 ◽  
Vol 247 ◽  
pp. 114721
Author(s):  
Sergei Vostrikov ◽  
Andrey Somov ◽  
Pavel Gotovtsev ◽  
Michele Magno

Author(s):  
Ruiyin Song ◽  
Xiancheng Wang

The max power per mass/volume of micro (mini) thermoelectric is related not only to the internal efficiency of thermoelectric generator but also to heat source and heat sink of the device. In this paper, high caloric value liquid fuel and high energy store PCM fuels were used as heat source while low phase transition temperature PCM as heat sink, and thermoelectric device was designed for test. Furthermore, the analysis of related data was conducted by experiments, and the merit and status in quo of using Radioisotope in thermoelectric device was analyzed, which shows that it is useful to make thermoelectric device from mini to micro. The experimental results show that adding heat sink is helpful to reduce the volume and improve the output power of the device.


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