• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.859-860
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• 2011

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2017

Thermoelectric power generation (TEG) technology with high figure of merit (ZT) has become the need of the modern world. TEG is a potent technology which can tackle most of the environmental issues such as global warming, change in climatic conditions over the globe, and for burning out of various resources of non-renewable energy like as petroleum deposits and gasolines. Although thermoelectric materials generally convert the heat energy from wastes to electricity according to the theories Seebeck and Peltier effects yet they have not been fully exploited to realize their potential. Researchers are focusing mainly on how to improve the current ZT value from 1 to 2 or even 3 by various approaches. However, a higher ZT value is found to be difficult due to complex thermoelectric properties of materials. Hence, there is a need for developing materials with high figure of merit. Recently, various nanotechnological approaches have been incorporated to improve the thermoelectric properties of materials. In this review paper, the authors have performed a thorough literature survey of various kinds of TEG technology.

• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.32-38
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• 2014

Heat emission from the laser diode used in the optical disc drive and the defects from the increased temperature at the system have attracted attentions from the field of the information storage device. Thermoelectric refrigerator is one of the fine solutions to solve these thermal problems. The refrigeration performance of thermoelectric device is dependent on the thermoelectric material's figure-of-merit. Meanwhile, high electrical contact resistivity between metal electrode and p- and n-type thermoelectric materials in the device would lead increased total electrical resistance resulting in the degeneracy in performance. This paper represents the manufacturing process of the PbTe-based material which has one of the highest figure-of-merit at medium-high-temperature, ~ 600K to 900 K, and the nickel contact layer for reduced electrical contact resistance at once, and the results showing the decent contact structure and figure-of-merit even after the long-term operation environment.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.175-180
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• 2008

Thermoelectric materials convert temperature difference to electric power for power generation and vice versa for refrigeration. Recent advances in enhancing the thermoelectric figure-of-merit shed light on efficient power generation from the waste heat available in industries and vehicles. Nanoscale phenomena with both nanoscale constituent-embedded bulk samples and nanoscale materials proving enhanced thermoelectric performance have been widely reviewed. Bulk materials of crystal-orientation and nano-structured particle embedding seem to promise a higher thermoelectric figure-of-merit and an effective power generation application. As a preliminary study, Si-Ge nanocomposite was prepared with spark plasma sintering method and its properties were examined.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.682-683
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• 2006

Thermoelectric conversion efficiency of thermoelectric elements can be increased by using a structure combining n-type and p-type semiconductors. From the above point of view, attention was directed at ZnO as a candidate n-type semiconductor material and investigations were made. As the result, a dimensionless figure of merit ZT close to 0.28 (1073K) was obtained for specimens produced by the PCS (Pulse Current Sintering) method with addition of specified quantities of $TiO_2$, CoO, and $Al_2O_3$ to ZnO. It was found that the interstitial $TiO_2$ in the ZnO restrains the grain growth and CoO acts onto the bond between grains. The influence of the inclusion of $TiO_2$ and CoO onto the sintering behavior also was investigated.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2013

The n-type $Bi_2(Te_{0.9}Se_{0.1})_3$ powders, which were fabricated by melting/grinding method and dispersed with 0.5 vol% $TiO_2$ nanopowders, were hot-pressed in order to investigate the effects of $TiO_2$ dispersion on the thermoelectric properties of the hot-pressed $Bi_2(Te_{0.9}Se_{0.1})_3$. Excellent thermoelectric properties such as a maximum figure-of-merit of $2.93{\times}10^{-3}/K$ and a maximum dimensionless figure-of-merit of 1.02 were obtained for the hot-pressed $Bi_2(Te_{0.9}Se_{0.1})_3$. With dispersion of 0.5 vol% $TiO_2$ nanopowders, the maximum figure-of-merit and the maximum dimensionless figure-of-merit decreased to $2.09{\times}10^{-3}/K$ and 0.68, respectively.

• Electronic Materials Letters
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.725-732
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• 2018

The thermoelectric and transport properties of Ti-doped FeVSb half-Heusler alloys were studied in this study. $FeV_{1-x}Ti_xSb$ (0.1 < x < 0.5) half-Heusler alloys were synthesized by mechanical alloying process and subsequent vacuum hot pressing. After vacuum hot pressing, a near singe phase with a small fraction of second phase was obtained in this experiment. Investigation of microstructure revealed that both grain and particle sizes were decreased on doping which would influence on thermal conductivity. No foreign elements pick up from the vial was seen during milling process. Thermoelectric properties were investigated as a function of temperature and doping level. The absolute value of Seebeck coefficient showed transition from negative to positive with increasing doping concentrations ($x{\geq}0.3$). Electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and power factor increased with the increasing amount of Ti contents. The lattice thermal conductivity decreased considerably, possibly due to the mass disorder and grain boundary scattering. All of these turned out to increase in power factor significantly. As a result, the thermoelectric figure of merit increased comprehensively with Ti doping for this experiment, resulting in maximum thermoelectric figure of merit for $FeV_{0.7}Ti_{0.3}Sb$ at 658 K.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.456-460
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• 2011

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-fabricated suspended devices were used to measure the in-plane electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity of 304 nm and 516 nm thick InGaAlAs films with 0.3% ErAs nanoparticle inclusions by volume. The suspended device allows comprehensive thermoelectric property measurements from a single thin film or nanowire sample. Both thin film samples have identical material compositions and the sole difference is in the sample thickness. The measured Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity were all larger in magnitude for the thicker sample. While the relative change in values was dependent on the temperature, the thermal conductivity demonstrated the largest decrease for the thinner sample in the measurement temperature range of 325 K to 425 K. This could be a result of the increased phonon scattering due to the surface defects and included ErAs nanoparticles. Similar to the results from other material systems, the combination of the measured data resulted in higher values of the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) for the thinner sample; this result supports the theory that the reduced dimensionality, such as in twodimensional thin films or one-dimensional nanowires, can enhance the thermoelectric figure of merit compared with bulk threedimensional materials. The results strengthen and provide a possible direction in locating and optimizing thermoelectric materials for energy applications.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.520-527
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• 1999

As a new approache(extrusion-sintering process) to fabricate the thermoelectric materials, it has been at tempted to extrude and sinter the powders simultaneously. It was possible to produce the highly dense <$(Bi,Sb)_2(Te,Se)_3$-based thermoelectrics with sound surface appearances and microstructures by adjusting the process variables. For the p-type materials, the Seeback coefficient was increased with the amount of Te dopants, and the thermoelectric figure of merit appeared to be $2.5\times10^{-3}/K$ at room temperature when doped with 3 at % Te. The n-type specimen doped with 0.16 mol% $SbI_3$ showed the thermoelectric figure of merit of $1.8\times10^{-3}/K$. In both p-type an 우-type materials, the carrier mobility an the thermoelectric figure of merit parallel to the extrusion direction were higher than those perpendicular to it.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.582-588
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• 2019

FeVSb1-xTex (0.02 ≤ x ≤ 0.10) half-Heusler alloys were fabricated by mechanical alloying process and subsequent vacuum hot pressing. Near single half-Heusler phases are formed in vacuum hot pressed samples but a second phase of FeSb2 couldn't be avoided. After doping, the lattice thermal conductivity in the system was shown to decrease with increasing Te concentration and with increasing temperature. The lowest thermal conductivity was achieved for FeVSb0.94Te0.06 sample at about 657 K. This considerable reduction of thermal conductivities is attributed to the increased phonon scattering enhanced by defect structure, which is formed by doping of Te at Sb site. The phonon scattering might also increase at grain boundaries due to the formation of fine grain structure. The Seebeck coefficient increased considerably as well, consequently optimizing the thermoelectric figure of merit to a peak value of ~0.24 for FeVSb0.94Te0.06. Thermoelectric properties of various Te concentrations were investigated in the temperature range of around 300~973 K.