Flexible thermoelectric power generator based on electrochemical deposition process

The harvest of heat energy using a thermoelectric (TE) effect is one of the potential methods for body area network power source. This paper demonstrates a new approach of a chemical electroplating deposition process to fabricate a self-endurance flexible TE generator without top and bottom sustaining substrate. According to that, an idea of horizontal Y type TE cells instead of column π type structure is proposed to enhance the performance of temperature harvest. In the other hand, thick films of thermoelectric materials (N type-bismuth telluride and P type-antimony telluride) are successfully synthesized that greatly reducing internal resistance. With all of these solutions, the significant improvement of power generating performance has been observed. With the temperature difference between human body (around 37°C) and environment ambient (15°C), the device can generate about 3 μW/cm². The ideas and results from this work can precipitate the development of wearable electronics devices, such as biosensors, health care instruments, mobiles devices, etc.