Interfacial Stress Limits PbTe Module Reliability: Porous Fe Foam Mitigates Thermal-Mismatch Stress

Key Points

• This research aims to address the reliability issues of PbTe-based thermoelectric modules caused by interfacial thermal-mechanical stress.
• Analyzed failure mechanisms in PbTe thermoelectric modules.
• Investigated the impact of porous Fe foam on interfacial stress.
• Compared conventional diffusion-barrier approaches against new solutions.
• Identified interfacial thermal-mechanical stress as a key failure mechanism.
• Demonstrated that porous Fe foam effectively reduces thermal-mismatch stress.
• Showed that enhanced reliability of PbTe modules can be achieved with porous Fe foam.