HIGH PERFORMANCE FLEXIBLE THERMOELECTRIC DEVICE INCLUDED RIGID MATERIAL

A Thermoelectric device (TE-device) is promising way to achieve energy harvesting from wasted heat. For energy harvesting, flexibility and stretchability are necessary since a heat source surface has complex shape such as free-form surface. We realized high performance flexible TE-device which combining rigid BiTe-based thermoelectric elements (TE-elements) and flexible structures such as stretchable substrate and expandable electrical wirings. In this device, the BiTe-based TE-elements ensures thermoelectric performance and the flexible structures ensures flexibility. By designing as that, the device has high thermoelectric conversion performance which is comparable with conventional TE-device while having flexibility.