Thermoelectrics

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North Carolina State University, Raleigh, will lead a national nanotechnology research effort to create self-powered medical monitoring devices to help people monitor their own health. The National Science Foundation Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST), to be headquartered at the university, is a joint effort between NC State and partner institutions Florida International University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Virginia.

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Power Felt is a new thermoelectric device developed by researchers at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University. By touching a small piece, body heat is converted into an electrical current.
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The bq25504 from Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) is an integrated energy harvesting nanopower management solution for ultra low power applications. The boost converter is designed to efficiently acquire and manage the microwatts to miliwatts of power generated from a variety of DC sources like photovoltaic or thermal electric generators.
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For everything from batteries to photovoltaics, new materials are crucial to building a clean energy economy. To speed up the development cycle, Berkeley Lab and MIT researchers have teamed up to develop a new tool - called the Materials Project - which launches this month.
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Marlow Industries (Dallas, TX) has introduced the EverGen series of thermoelectric-based energy harvesting devices, offering a zero-maintenance power solution for wireless sensor applications. EverGen thermal energy harvesters power wireless sensors without a battery, reducing replacement costs.
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Berkeley Lab scientists have found that temperature gradients in semiconductors, when one side of the device is hotter than the opposite side, can produce electronic vortices – whirlpools of electric current – and can, at the same time, create magnetic fields at right angles to both the plane of the swirling electric currents and the direction of the heat gradient.
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New technology is being developed at Oregon State University to capture and use the low-to-medium grade waste heat from automobiles, diesel generators, or factories and electrical utilities. The new systems should be able to use much of that waste heat either in cooling or the production of electricity.
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Neutron analysis of the atomic dynamics behind thermal conductivity is helping scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) gain a deeper understanding of how thermoelectric materials work. The analysis could spur the development of a broader range of products with the capability to transform heat to electricity.
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Nextreme Thermal Solutions (Durham, NC) and Arkansas Power Electronics International, Inc. (APEI) (Fayetteville, AR) are developing a thermal energy harvesting solution for a wireless sensor system to monitor the health of bearings in turbine engines. The energy harvester is based on Nextreme's Thermobility wireless power generation platform and will be integrated into APEI's high-temperature wireless sensor electronics package.
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With the first observation of thermoelectric effects at graphene contacts, University of Illinois researchers - led by mechanical science and engineering professor William King and electrical and computer engineering professor Eric Pop - found that graphene transistors have a nanoscale cooling effect that reduces their temperature.
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University of Illinois engineers have developed a form of ultra-low-power digital memory that is faster and uses 100 times less energy than similar available memory. The technology could give future portable devices much longer battery life between charges.
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Multi-Mission Power Analysis Tool (MMPAT) Version 2 simulates spacecraft power generation, use, and storage in order to support spacecraft design, mission planning, and spacecraft operations. It can simulate all major aspects of a spacecraft power subsystem. It is parametrically driven to reduce or eliminate the need for a programmer.
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Cymbet Corporation (Elk River, MN) has introduced its EnerChip™ EP CBC-EVAL-09 Universal Energy Harvesting evaluation kit. The EVAL-09 supports all types of ambient energy harvesting from light, vibration, thermal gradients, and flow/motion.
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The High Altitude Airship (HAA) has various application potential and mission scenarios that require onboard energy harvesting and power distribution systems. The power technology for HAA maneuverability and mission-oriented applications must come from its surroundings, e.g. solar power.
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Nextreme Thermal Solutions (Durham, NC) offers the eTEG™ HV37 thermoelectric power generator, the next entry in the high-voltage (HV) series of clean energy generators based on thin-film thermoelectrics. The eTEG HV37 converts waste heat into electrical energy for a variety of self-powered applications.
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The heat radiating off roadways has long been a factor in explaining why city temperatures are often considerably warmer than nearby suburban or rural areas. University of Rhode Island researchers are examining methods of harvesting that solar energy to melt ice, power streetlights, illuminate signs, heat buildings, and potentially use it for many other purposes.
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Held at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, the World Energy Engineering Congress (WEEC) features a large, multi-track conference agenda, a full line-up of seminars on a variety of current topics, and a comprehensive exposition of the market's most promising new technologies.
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MicroStrain, Inc. (Williston, VT) introduces EH-Link™, a new hybrid energy harvesting wireless sensor node that collects energy from multiple sources including strain, vibration, thermal gradients, ambient light, and thermal and electromagnetic fields.
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Cymbet Corporation (Elk River, MN) introduces the EnerChip™ Energy Processor (EP) CBC915, which works universally across all energy harvesting transducer technologies including photovoltaic, thermoelectric, piezoelectric, and electromagnetic.
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A new thermoelectric power generator from Johnson Space Center consists of an oven box and a solar cooker/solar reflector unit. The solar reflector concentrates sunlight into heat and transfers the heat into the oven box via a heat pipe.
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Nextreme Thermal Solutions (Durham, NC) introduces an updated version of the OptoCooler HV14 that enables assembly temperatures as high as 320°C. The RoHS-compliant OptoCooler HV14 module is a high heat pumping thermoelectric device designed for standard electrical power requirements.
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The need to get rid of excess heat creates a major source of inefficiency in everything from computer processor chips to car engines. According to Peter Hagelstein, an associate professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, existing solid-state devices to convert heat into electricity are not very efficient. Experimenting with thermal diodes, an MIT team has come closer to the theoretical limitations for the efficiency of such a conversion.
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Nextreme Thermal Solutions (Durham, NC) and Infinite Power Solutions, Inc. (Denver, CO) offer a thermal charger that can continuously recharge the IPS THINERGY^TM Micro-Energy Cell (MEC) using an eTEG thermoelectric power generator from Nextreme. Storing energy harvested from waste heat using thermoelectrics enables an alternative energy source for various autonomous applications.
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SiGe is an important semiconductor alloy for high-speed field effect transistors (FETs), high-temperature thermoelectric devices, photovoltaic solar cells, and photon detectors. The growth of SiGe layer is difficult because SiGe alloys have different lattice constants from those of the common Si wafers, which leads to a high density of defects, including dislocations, micro-twins, cracks, and delaminations.
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Operating the air conditioning is the largest auxiliary energy drain on cars. In December 2008, DOE announced a project to study and develop thermoelectric heating and cooling systems. As partners in the project, NREL will team up with Ford to research efficient ways of cooling vehicles.
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