Turning wasted calories into juice
A miniature, thin-film thermoelectric generator from Nextreme, Research Triangle Park, N.C., turns heat into electricity using what is called the Seebeck Effect.
A temperature differential
applied across the device
changes its Fermi energy, creating
an electrical potential.
Standard semiconductor fabrication
methods build the 3.5-mm-sq
solid-state generators. Power density
is >3 W/cm2 at a ΔT = 120°C,
higher than that of bulk materials
and about 1/20th the thickness. Target
markets and applications include
automotive, military and aerospace,
thermal batteries, medical implants
and wireless sensor networks.
Nextreme, www.nextreme.com