Material Optimization for a High Power Thermoelectric Generator in Wearable Applications

Thermoelectric power generation using human body heat can be applied to wearable sensors, and various applications are possible. Because the thermoelectric generator (TEG) is highly dependent on the thermoelectric material, research on improving the performance of the thermoelectric material has been conducted. Thus far, in developing thermoelectric materials, the researchers have focused on improving the figure of merit, ZT. For a TEG placed on the human body, however, the power density does not always increase as the material ZT increases. In this study, the material properties and ZT of P-type BiSbTe3 were simulated for carrier concentration ranging from 3 × 1017 to 3 × 1020 cm−3, and the power density of a TEG fabricated from the material dataset was calculated using a thermoelectric resistance model for human body application. The results revealed that the maximum ZT and the maximum…