Research On Key Technology Of TEG

TEG is a semiconductor thermoelectric generator that can convert heat into electric power under the temperature differences. It has many attractive features, such as no moving parts and reduced maintenance, and can be designed into a number of shapes for many specific applications. With the autonomous sensor systems play an increasing role in many areas, distributed sensor networks enable much of applications for TEG.In the paper, an analysis of a TEG is presented and expressions derived for the thermodynamic efficiency, optimum efficiency, maximum power output, and maximum power output per unit area. A new analytical heat conduction model for TEG was built. The model includes the Thomson heat, the Peltier heat, Joule heat, as well as all thermal and electrical resistances. Geometry optimization is presented.Many recent advances in TEG have focused on the nanoscale engineering of materials for higher figure of merit (2). A thermoelectric generator using these thin-film materials can present new challenges due to its inherently large temperature gradient, but also correspondingly larger generated power if the heat can be managed. In such cases performance is expected to be limited as much by the heat sink as by intrinsic material properties. New criteria for optimizing the generated power density of devices in this regime are discussed.