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

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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.