I-Corps: Solid-State Devices for Thermal Management and Power Generation

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是它为可以直接将热量转换为电力或局部加热/冷却表面的设备带来的重大变化。这种新方法，即热电材料的激光增材制造，是一种变革性的制造方法，这种技术将解决现有热电发电机和热电冷却器技术中普遍存在的设备工程和制造挑战。这种新方法可以减少材料浪费并实现创新的几何形状：结果将是性能更高，更具成本效益的热电设备。这项技术也影响了增材制造领域。该方法通过推进激光增材制造对新型半导体热电材料的适用性，使增材制造与更广泛的行业和应用相关。该I-Corps项目将探索热电器件增材制造的实施和商业化机会，提供影响航空航天，国防，汽车，电子和电信行业众多行业和技术的潜力。该I-Corps项目基于一项新技术，解决热电行业面临的关键生产问题。热电装置目前使用具有机械加工、组装和集成步骤的块体材料处理来制造，这导致性能退化、高成本、材料浪费和有限的应用。新技术与传统的制造方法有很大的不同，大大简化了制造过程。 激光增材制造消除了组装的需要，并通过在一个过程中生产和放置所有热电腿来改善界面集成。这就产生了一种高性能、高性价比的解决方案，可以取代目前的制造技术。这里开发的平台可以生成传统机械加工无法实现的三维结构，这些自由形状的几何形状将增加热电器件在更广泛市场中的适用性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the significant change it enables for devices which can directly convert heat to electricity or locally heat/cool a surface. The new method, laser additive manufacturing of thermoelectric materials, is a transformational manufacturing approach, and this technology would solve device engineering and manufacturing challenges prevalent in existing thermoelectric generator and thermoelectric cooler technologies. This new approach could reduce material waste and enable innovative geometries: the result would be higher-performing and more cost-effective thermoelectric devices. This technique also impacts the additive manufacturing field. The approach makes additive manufacturing relevant for a broader set of industries and applications by advancing laser additive manufacturing's applicability to new classes of semiconductor thermoelectric materials. This I-Corps project will explore implementation and commercialization opportunities of additive manufacturing for thermoelectric devices, providing the potential to impact numerous industries and technologies in aerospace, defense, automotive, electronics, and telecommunications industries.This I-Corps project is based on a new technology that solves critical production problems facing the thermoelectrics industry. Thermoelectric devices are currently manufactured using bulk material processing with machining, assembly, and integration steps which lead to performance degradation, high costs, material waste, and limited applications. The new technique is significantly different from the traditional manufacturing method and greatly simplifies the manufacturing process. Laser additive manufacturing eliminates the need for assembly and improves interface integration by production and placement of all the thermoelectric legs in one process. This results in a high-performance, cost-effective solution to replace the current manufacturing techniques. The platform developed here generates three-dimensional structures which cannot be achieved through traditional machining, and these freeform geometries would increase the applicability of thermoelectric devices in a broader set of markets. The new approach has been shown to work on thermoelectric materials and used to create novel thermoelectric part geometries.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.