Proceedings Article | 5 May 2011
Proc. SPIE. 8066, Smart Sensors, Actuators, and MEMS V
KEYWORDS: Gold, Thin films, Electronics, Resistance, Bismuth, Thermoelectric materials, Chemical elements, Tellurium, Prototyping, Device simulation
Present work proposed design, finite element tools simulation and prototype fabrication of a low cost energy
autonomous, maintenance free, flexible and wearable micro thermoelectric generator (μTEG), finalized to power very
low consumption electronics Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) applications. The prototype, integrating an array of 100
thin films thermocouples of Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> and Bi<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub>, generates, at 40 °C, an open circuit output voltage of 430 mV and an
electrical output power up to 32 nW with matched load. In real operation conditions of prototype, which are believed to
be very close to a thermal gradient of 15°C, the device generates an open circuit output voltage of about 160 mV, with
an electrical output power up to 4.18 nW. In this work we proposed design, thermal simulation and fabrication of a
preliminary flexible and wearable micro thermoelectric generator (μTEG), finalized to power very low consumption
electronics for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) applications. Presented simulations show the performances of different
fabrication solution for the PDMS/Kapton packages, considering flat and sloped walls approach for thermal gradient
enhancement.
