| Abstract Scope |
Recent prosperous thermoelectric research activities have made a significant progress in improving performance of thermoelectric materials. Traditional bulk-type thermoelectric modules suffer from high material loss during cutting and grinding, while thin-film type thermoelectric modules high fraction of electrical/thermal contact resistance and high processing cost. Thick-film modules made by screen printing or dispenser printing technologies have found appealing applications in the field of self-powered wireless network sensing and long-term biological monitoring due to their cost-effective fabrication process. The current printed thermoelements usually exhibit worse electrical conductivity and low thermoelectric power factor than their bulk counterparts. This talk intends to introduce the research and development efforts of printing thick-film modules, especially focused on flexible thermoelectric devices. The major technical challenges and breakthroughs for the development of printing-based thermoelectric devices are presented, including thermoelement processing, device configuration and heat sink/source arrangements. Finally, some potential applications for low-power flexible thermoelectric devices are introduced. |