• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.409-414
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• 2012

A theoretical investigation to optimize thermoelectric elements for thermoelectric coolers was performed using a new one-dimensional analytic model. Mathematical expressions for the optimum current and the optimum length of a thermoelectric element, which maximize the coefficient of performance of thermoelectric coolers, were obtained. The optimum current is expressed in terms of the cooling load for a thermoelectric element, the hot and cold side temperatures and thermoelectric properties, but not the length of a thermoelectric element. The optimum current is proportional to the cooling load and decreases as the temperature difference between the hot and cold sides decreases. It is also shown that the optimum length of a thermoelectric element decreases as the cooling load increases.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.66-69
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• 2017

The internal temperature of human-tissue transfers must be steadily maintained regardless of the external environmental changes. An ice pack and dry ice are the coolants for the transfer containers for which heat-insulating materials such as EPP (expended polypeopylene and EPS (expended polystrene) are used; however, changes of the external temperature/pressure and the melting of the coolants that is due to a long carriage result in changes of the internal temperature, and this makes it difficult to maintain the temperature. Accordingly, the thermoelectric element was used to design/manufacture a transfer container to maintain the internal temperature regardless of the external environmental changes. As a result of the measurement of the changes of the internal temperatures of the manufactured thermoelectric-element container and the EPS container over time, the internal temperature of the EPS container was increased, whereas the internal temperature of the thermoelectric-element container was maintained. The temperature of the distilled water that was poured into the containers indicated a pattern identical to that of the internal temperature.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.1435-1440
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• 2014

This paper was designed to analyze thermal properties using thermoelectric element for air-cooling heat dissipation of 13.2W-class COB LED. For comparative analysis with generally used air cooling methods, the heat sink was designed and produced, and this experiment was conducted to measure the temperature distribution using a contact thermometer while the COB LED was operating for 100 minutes. One result was about $75^{\circ}C$ for the general cooling method, and the other was $57^{\circ}C$ while the thermoelectric element was operating with applying the current of 0.8A to the thermoelectric element. This results confirmed that the method of applying thermoelectric element was much better in the dissipation of thermal condense on the COB LED than that of the general air cooling one. The temperature on the contact points of COB LED using thermoelectric element was decreased about 31% compared with the air cooling method from $75^{\circ}C$ to $57^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.211-217
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• 2006

The three-dimensional numerical analysis has been carried out to figure out the effect of the thermoelectric element thickness on the thermal performance of the thermo-electric micro-cooler. The small-size and column-type thermoelectric cooler is considered. It is known that tellurium compounds currently have the highest cooling performance around the room temperature. Thus, in the present study, $Bi_{2}Te_{3}$ and $Sb_{2}Te_{3}$ are selected as the n- and p-type thermoelectric materials, respectively. The thermoelectric leg considered is less than $20{\mu}m$ thick. The thickness of the leg may affect the thermal and electrical transport through the interfaces between the leg and metal conductors. The effect of the thermoelectric element thickness on the thermal performance of the cooler has been investigated with parameters such as the temperature difference, the current, and the cooling power.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.1135-1140
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• 2008

Bismuth-telluride based thin film materials are grown by Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition(MOCVD). A planar type thermoelectric device has been fabricated using p-type $Bi_{0.4}Sb_{1.6}Te_3$ and n-type $Bi_2Te_3$ thin films. Firstly, the p-type thermoelectric element was patterned after growth of $4{\mu}m$ thickness of $Bi_{0.4}Sb_{1.6}Te_3$ layer. Again n-type $Bi_2Te_3$ film was grown onto the patterned p-type thermoelectric film and n-type strips are formed by using selective chemical etchant for $Bi_2Te_3$. The top electrical connector was formed by thermally deposited metal film. The generator consists of 20 pairs of p- and n-type legs. We demonstrate complex structures of different conduction types of thermoelectric element on same substrate by two separate runs of MOCVD with etch-stop layer and selective etchant for n-type thermoelectric material. Device performance was evaluated on a number of thermoelectric devices. To demonstrate power generation, one side of the sample was heated by heating block and the voltage output measured. As expected for a thermoelectric generator, the voltage decreases linearly, while the power output rises to a maximum. The highest estimated power of $1.3{\mu}W$ is obtained for the temperature difference of 45 K. we provide a promising procedure for fabricating thin film thermoelectric generators by using MOCVD grown thermoelectric materials which may have nanostructure with high thermoelectric properties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.425-425
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• 2008

Bismuth-antimony-telluride based thermoelectric thin film materials were prepared by metal organic vapor phase deposition using trimethylbismuth, triethylantimony and diisopropyltelluride as metal organic sources. A planar type thermoelectric device has been fabricated using p-type $Bi_{0.4}Sb_{1.6}Te_3$ and n-type $Bi_2Te_3$ thin films. Firstly, the p-type thermoelectric element was patterned after growth of $4{\mu}m$ thickness of $Bi_{0.4}Sb_{1.6}Te_3$ layer. Again n-type $Bi_2Te_3$ film was grown onto the patterned p-type thermoelectric film and n-type strips are formed by using selective chemical etchant for $Bi_2Te_3$. The top electrical connector was formed by thermally deposited metal film. The generator consists of 20 pairs of p- and n-type legs. We demonstrate complex structures of different conduction types of thermoelectric element on same substrate by two separate runs of MOCVD with etch-stop layer and selective etchant for n-type thermoelectric material. Device performance was evaluated on a number of thermoelectric devices. To demonstrate power generation, one side of the device was heated by heating block and the voltage output was measured. The highest estimated power of 1.3mW is obtained at the temperature difference of 45K. We provide a promising approach for fabricating thin film thermoelectric generators by using MOCVD grown thermoelectric materials which can employ nanostructures for high thermoelectric properties.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.219-226
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• 2019

This paper describes the development of a 500W DC/DC converter for use with a thermoelectric module(TEM). A thermoelectric device is a structure in which a P-type semiconductor and an N-type semiconductor are electrically connected in series and thermally connected in parallel. There is a feature that an electromotive force is generated by making a temperature difference between both surfaces of a thermoelectric element. This feature can be used as a renewable power source without the need for fossil energy. The proposed converter boosts the low generation voltage of the thermoelectric element to secure the voltage for the grid connection. This converter is a combination of a resonant converter for boosting and a boost-converter for output voltage control. This structure has an advantage that a voltage can be stepped up at a high efficiency and precise output voltage control is possible. We carry out simulations and experiments to verify the validity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.443-447
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• 2009

Bismuth-antimony-telluride based thermoelectric thin film materials were prepared by metal organic vapor phase deposition using trimethylbismuth, triethylantimony and diisopropyltelluride as metal organic sources. A planar type thermoelectric device has been fabricated using p-type $Bi_{0.4}Sb_{1.6}Te_3$ and n-type $Bi_{2}Te_{3}$ thin films. Firstly, the p-type thermoelectric element was patterned after growth of $5{\mu}m$ thickness of $Bi_{0.4}Sb_{1.6}Te_3$ layer. Again n-type $Bi_{2}Te_{3}$ film was grown onto the patterned p-type thermoelectric film and n-type strips are formed by using selective chemical etchant for $Bi_{2}Te_{3}$. The top electrical connector was formed by thermally deposited metal film. The generator consists of 20 pairs of p- and n-type legs. We demonstrate complex structures of different conduction types of thermoelectric element on same substrate by two separate runs of MOCVD with etch-stop layer and selective etchant for n-type thermoelectric material. Device performance was evaluated on a number of thermoelectric devices. To demonstrate power generation, one side of the device was heated by heating block and the voltage output was measured. The highest estimated power of 1.3 ${\mu}m$ is obtained at the temperature difference of 45 K.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2002.07b
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• pp.1332-1334
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• 2002

Thermoelectric generation is the direct energy conversion method from heat th electric power. The conversion method is a very useful utilization of waste energy because of its possibility using a thermal energy below $150^{\circ}C$ This research objective is th establish the thermoelectric technology on a optimum system design method and efficiency, and cost effective thermoelectric element in order to extract the maximum electric power from a wasted hot water. This paper is considered in manufacturing a thermoelectric generator and measuring of electric resistance of module a thermoelectric modules. It was found that the electric resistance of thermoelectric modules was defined as a temperature functions. The relationship between electric resistance and temperature characteristics can be a analogized as function of electric current.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.375-380
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• 2014

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cooling and heating performance of a standalone-type thermoelectric system equipped with a thermoelectric module. The system consists of a blower and two thermoelectric modules with a fin, which is soldered onto both sides of the thermoelectric module and a courtesy light. The thermoelectric system experiment is conducted with the intake voltage to find the optimum cooling and heating performance of each. The results showed that the cooling capacity and coefficient of performance (COP) were 22 W and 0.31, and the heating capacity and COP were 147 W and 1.1, respectively. In the vehicle cooling and heating performance test in a climate wind tunnel, the results showed that the standalone thermoelectric system's cooling performance was slightly better than the base system; and the heating performance of the standalone thermoelectric system was $54.1^{\circ}C$ and the COP was 1.3, compared to the base system.