In integrated systems, microthermoelectric modules can be used as energy harvesters, active coolers, and thermal sensors. However, manufacturing such modules with conventional microfabrication processes is expensive and can only produce 2D thermoelectric films, which limits the formation of high temperature gradients and thus power generation.
Recently, a research team from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has fabricated directly-writeable particle-based thermoelectric inks and fabricated 3D thermoelectric microstructures.Characterization of (Bi,Sb)2(Te,Se)3-based particle inks was engineered through size control and surface oxidation to create colloidal inks with high viscoelasticity and no organic binders, using3D printingThe process writes ink directly into complex structures. The resulting structures exhibited high thermoelectric figures of merit of 1.0 (p-type) and 0.5 (n-type), comparable to bulk ingots.The team also passed3D printingFabrication of a micro-thermoelectric generator (μTEG) composed of vertical thermoelectric (TE) filaments with a large temperature gradient and 479.0 μW/cm
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