Metal-Metal Thermoelectric Harvester

Paper in proceeding, 2019

A 3-couples proof-of-concept harvester (55×6 mm2) was assembled by spot welding 0.1 mm thick molybdenum foil and 0.15 mm thick nickel foil together. To insulate the foils from each other at the hot side a 0.1 mm thick glass fiber sheet was placed between the foils. At the cold side the harvester was insulated with 0.1 mm polyimide tape for easier handling and fabrication of the harvester. The load resistance measurement gave impedance match of approximately 0.24 Ω at 28°C, which slowly decreased to approximately 0.1 Ω as the temperature increased to 172°C. With a temperature gradient of 172°C (0-172°C) and 0.125 (±0.025) Ω load resistance, a power output was measured to 450 (±85) μW at 7.2 mV.