Monolithic Thermoelectric Devices Prepared with Multilayer Cofired Ceramics Technology

Novel monolithic thermoelectric (TE) devices were fabricated using multilayer co-fired ceramics technology and p-type, n-type, and insulator layers of oxide materials. (La1.97,Sr0.03)CuO4 and (Nd1.97,Ce0.03)CuO4 served as p- and n-type thermoelectric materials, respectively. A mixture of Mg2SiO4 and silicate glass was utilized as an insulator sandwiched between p- and n-type layers. The materials constituting a TE device must have mutually matching thermal shrinkage characteristics. The dimensions of a TE device comprising 25 pairs of p–i–n junctions were 9.6 ×6.9 ×5.0 mm3. The observed maximum open-circuit voltage and electric output power of the TE devices were 2.3 V and 40 mW/cm2 at ΔT = 360 K (between 653 and 293 K), respectively.