Disclosed is an article having: a porous thermally insulating material, an electrically conductive coating on the thermally insulating material, and a thermoelectric coating on the electrically conductive coating. Also disclosed is a method of forming an article by: providing a porous thermally insulating material, coating an electrically conductive coating on the thermally insulating material, and coating a thermoelectric coating on the electrically conductive coating. The articles may be useful in thermoelectric devices.

Methods and apparatus for removing heat from an object for the purpose of cooling or for the purpose of generating electrical power are disclosed. In an embodiment, at least two field-effect transistors (FETs) are operated under inversion. While the FETs are being operated, heat is conducted from the object through body portions of said FETs to an element configured for dissipating the conducted heat.

Provided herein are a thermoelectric material and a method for preparing the same, wherein the thermoelectric material has excellent thermoelectric performance and high mechanical properties (in particular, fracture toughness), and thus, when the thermoelectric material is applied to a thermoelectric module, the thermoelectric module has excellent performance and efficiency and a long lifespan.

The present disclosure provides a thermoelectric element comprising a flexible semiconductor substrate having exposed surfaces with a metal content that is less than about 1% as measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and a figure of merit (ZT) that is at least about 0.25, wherein the flexible semiconductor substrate has a Young's Modulus that is less than or equal to about 1?10.sup.6 pounds per square inch (psi) at 25? C.

An enhanced electrical yield is achieved with an integrated thermoelectric generator (iTEG) of out-of-plane heat flux configuration on a substrate wafer having hill-top junction metal contacts and valley-bottom junction metal contacts joining juxtaposed ends of segments, alternately p-doped and n-doped, of defined thin film lines of segments of a polycrystalline semiconductor, extending over inclined opposite flanks of hills of a material of lower thermal conductivity than the thermal conductivity of the thermoelectrically active polycrystalline semiconductor, by keeping void the valleys spaces (V) among the hills and delimited at the top by a planar electrically non conductive cover with metal bond pads defined over the coupling surface, adapted to bond with respective hill-top junction metal contacts. The junction metal contacts have a cross sectional profile of low aspect ratio, with two arms or wings overlapping the juxtaposed end portions of the segments. Preferably the inner void is evacuated upon packaging the iTEG.

A thermoelectric conversion material is used in which columnar or spherical nanodots 1 having a diameter of 20 nm or less are embedded in an embedding layer 3 at an area density of 5?10.sup.10/cm.sup.2 or more and an interval between the nanodots of 0.5 nm or more and 30.0 nm or less, and the first material constituting the nanodot 1 is a material containing silicon in an amount of 30 atom % or more, and, either one or both of a difference in energy between the valence band of the first material and the valence band of the second material constituting the embedding layer 3 and a difference in energy between the conduction band of the first material and the conduction band of the second material constituting the embedding layer are in the range of 0.1 eV or more and 0.3 eV or less.

A method includes forming, over a substrate, an optical component and first, second and third thermal control mechanisms. The optical component includes first and second main paths, and first and second side paths each having opposite ends correspondingly coupled to the first and second main paths. The second side path is spaced from the first side path. Each of the first, second and third thermal control mechanisms includes a first thermoelectric member having a first conductivity type, a second thermoelectric member having a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type, and a conductive structure that electrically connects the first thermoelectric member to the second thermoelectric member. The first side path is between the first and third thermal control mechanisms. The second side path is between the second and third thermal control mechanisms. The third thermal control mechanism is between the first and second side paths.

This invention relates to a thermoelectric material constituted of nanostructures and a thermoelectric element and an optical sensor including the same, as well as to a method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material constituted of nanostructures. An object of the present disclosure is to achieve better thermoelectric characteristics of the thermoelectric material containing nanoparticles. The thermoelectric material includes a first material having a band gap and a second material different from the first material. The thermoelectric material contains a plurality of nanoparticles distributed in a base material which is a mixture of the first material and the second material. A composition of the second material in the thermoelectric material is not lower than 0.01 atomic % and not higher than 2.0 atomic % of the thermoelectric material.

A thermoelectric conversion module includes a thermoelectric conversion module body which includes a plurality of thermoelectric conversion module substrates in which at least one of a P-type thermoelectric conversion element having a P-type thermoelectric conversion layer and a pair of connection electrodes which are electrically connected to the P-type thermoelectric conversion layer, or an N-type thermoelectric conversion element having an N-type thermoelectric conversion layer and a pair of connection electrodes which are electrically connected to the N-type thermoelectric conversion layer is provided on one surface of an insulating substrate having flexibility, the plurality of thermoelectric conversion module substrates being arranged such that a direction of the connection electrode and a direction of the insulating substrate are aligned, and a heat transfer portion which is provided on a side of the thermoelectric conversion module body close to at least one connection electrode of the thermoelectric conversion module substrate, presses the thermoelectric conversion module substrate in an arrangement direction, and transfers heat to the thermoelectric conversion module body or dissipates heat of the thermoelectric conversion module body. A thermal conductivity of the heat transfer portion is 10 W/mK or higher. A normal stress in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the insulating substrate in a case of pressing the thermoelectric conversion module substrate in the arrangement direction by the heat transfer portion is 0.01 MPa or higher.

Provided herein are a thermoelectric material and a method for preparing the same, wherein the thermoelectric material has excellent thermoelectric performance and high mechanical properties (in particular, fracture toughness), and thus, when the thermoelectric material is applied to a thermoelectric module, the thermoelectric module has excellent performance and efficiency and a long lifespan.