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

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是它使设备能够直接将热能转换为电能或局部加热/冷却表面。这种新的方法，即激光添加制造热电材料，是一种变革性的制造方法，该技术将解决现有热电发电机和热电制冷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，并实现创新的几何结构：结果将是性能更高、成本效益更高的热电设备。这项技术也影响了添加剂制造领域。该方法通过提高激光加法制造对新型半导体热电材料的适用性，使加法制造与更广泛的行业和应用相关。这个i-Corps项目将探索热电设备添加剂制造的实施和商业化机会，有可能影响航空航天、国防、汽车、电子和电信行业的众多行业和技术。这个i-Corps项目基于一种解决热电行业面临的关键生产问题的新技术。目前，热电器件的制造采用机械加工、组装和集成步骤的大宗材料加工，这会导致性能下降、成本高、材料浪费和应用受限。这项新技术与传统制造方法有很大不同，大大简化了制造过程。激光附加制造通过在一个工艺中生产和放置所有热电支腿，消除了组装的需要，并提高了接口集成度。这就产生了一种高性能、高性价比的解决方案，以取代当前的制造技术。这里开发的平台生成了传统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设备在更广泛的市场中的适用性。新的方法已被证明在热电材料上有效，并用于创造新的热电部件几何形状。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.