Advances in Flexible Thermoelectric Materials and Devices Fabricated by Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Due to the direct conversion between thermal and electrical energy, thermoelectric materials and their devices exhibit great potential for power generation and refrigeration. With the rapid development of personal wearable electronics, the design of flexible inorganic thermoelectric materials and devices receives increasing attention. As one of the most mature thin‐film fabrication techniques, magnetron sputtering plays a key role in the fabrication of inorganic thermoelectric thin films and devices, but its progress is still not timely and comprehensively reviewed. Herein, recent advances in magnetron sputtering‐fabricated thermoelectric materials and devices are studied, including their thermoelectric properties, mechanical properties, and device design routes. The differences in the properties of thermoelectric materials under different sputtering conditions, as well as their underlying mechanisms, are carefully discussed. In the end, it is pointed out the challenges and future directions for magnetron sputtering‐prepared inorganic thermoelectric thin‐film materials and devices for practical applications. This review can serve as a useful reference to guide the design of inorganic thermoelectric materials and devices prepared by magnetron‐sputtering‐based deposition techniques.

Weavable thermoelectrics: advances, controversies, and future developments

“…In the last decade, the fabrication of wearable electronic devices based on flexible thermoelectric materials has become a new focus in the field of thermoelectric research [56,58,61,[66][67][68][69][70]. Flexible thermoelectric materials typically consist of three main categories, namely conductive polymers [71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82], carbon [83][84][85][86][87], and inorganics [88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96]. Conductive polymer is one of the most extensively researched categories of flexible thermoelectric materials [97,98].…”

Large Electrical Conductivity and Thermoelectric Power Factor of Pulsed Laser-Deposited Zn1–xGaxO Thin Films

“…Thin film thermoelectrics (TFTE) has been an intriguing avenue of investigation in the recent past due to the plethora of technological applications such as self-powered wearable electronic devices, wireless sensor networks, microelectronics cooling, integrated circuits, etc. − The potentiality of the TE thin films is evaluated via the dimensionless figure of merit z T = S 2 σ κ T , where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ is electrical conductivity, κ is total thermal conductivity, and T is absolute temperature. − Nevertheless, achieving a high figure of merit is a key challenge due to the interdependent relationship among the physical parameters S , κ, and σ. − The simultaneous increase in Seebeck coefficient and the electrical conductivity, for a favorable enhancement of power factor (PF = S 2 σ), is tricky due to the inverse correlation of S and σ with carrier density n . Degenerately doped semiconductor thin films are the ideal choice for realizing a high TE power factor. − …”